2-NRLF 


GIFT  OF 


o-o  „ 


L  MAT 


THE  POWER 
OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 


THE  POWER 
OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

AND  OTHER  ESSAYS 

BY 

HERBERT  EDWARD  LAW 
F.C.S. 


PAUL  ELDER  AND  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS- SAN  FRANCISCO 


Copyright,  1913 
by  PAUL  ELDER  AKD  COMPANY 


TO  THE  EARNEST  MEN 

AND  WOMEN  OUT  OF  WHOSE 

BUSINESS  ASSOCIATION 

WITH  ME  THROUGH 

MANY  YEARS  THESE 

ESSAYS  HAVE 

GROWN 


336042 


CONTENTS 

Page 

THE  POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND    .  3 

WEALTH 19 

ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE    .     .  37 

COURAGE 57 

MENTAL  CONTROL 75 

FRICTION 97 

BUSINESS  BUILDING 109 

ENTHUSIASM 127 

LOOKING  FORWARD 141 

EFFECTIVENESS 155 


[v] 


Preface 


rl  ^HESE  essays  had  a  very  practical 
and  a  very  purposeful  origin.  They 
grew  out  of  the  necessities  and  activities 
of  a  large  business.  Their  beginnings 
were  usually,  or  at  least  often,  a  sentence 
or  a  paragraph  in  a  business  letter  in- 
tended to  give  direction  to  effort  or  sug- 
gestion to  thought;  to  give  encourage- 
ment by  pointing  the  way;  to  arouse 
hope  by  giving  it  a  basis;  to  help  by 
showing  how  to  help  one's  self. 

Progress  is  the  process  of  creating, 
training  and  developing  the  instruments 
of  progress.  Every  work,  great  or  small, 
must  create  both  the  means  and  the  in- 
struments by  which  it  can  be  accom- 
plished. We  can  see  this  plainly  in  such 
great  undertakings  as  the  construction 
of  the  Panama  Canal.  But  it  is  not  less 
true,  though  not  so  strikingly  obvious, 
in  all  other  enterprises  and  undertak- 
ings, whether  they  be  public  or  private — 
a  political  upheaval  or  the  establishment 
of  a  new  breakfast  food  business. 

[VII] 


PBEFACE 

The  human  instruments  have  to  be 
created,  trained  and  developed  no  less 
than  the  material  instruments — nay 
more.  The  Panama  Canal  is  in  its  es- 
sence, and  vitally,  much  more  a  matter 
of  men  than  of  means,  or  of  mechanical, 
or  engineering  appliances,  or  even  of 
scientific  adaptation  and  achievement. 

The  development  of  a  big  business 
enterprise — the  biggest  business  enter- 
prise — is  less  a  matter  of  capital  than  of 
men.  It  can  be  done  without  capital- 
is  constantly  being  done — but  it  cannot 
be  done  without  men.  But  the  men  have 
to  be  created;  that  is,  the  right  material 
has  to  be  found,  trained  and  developed; 
it  has  to  be  molded,  educated,  developed 
and  inspired.  The  process  is  one  of 
building  up,  of  creation,  not  of  cutting 
down,  adapting,  reducing,  fitting.  A 
great  work  can  be  accomplished  by  or- 
dinary men  inspired  by  the  greatness  of 
the  work  they  are  called  on  to  do;  but 
never  by  even  great  men  who  lack  in- 
spiration. Pigmies  can  do  the  work  of 
giants  when  they  are  inspired  to  do  a 
giant's  work.  But  giants  will  only  do 
the  work  of  pigmies  when  they  lack  the 
inspiration  to  do  a  giant's  work. 

[VIII] 


PBEPACB 

Growth,  development,  increase  in 
power  must  come  from  within.  The 
man  or  woman,  to  achieve,  must  be  born 
again.  Accomplishment  is  the  result, 
not  of  fitness,  but  of  determination  to 
be  fit;  not  of  preparedness  but  of  striv- 
ings for  preparation,  its  sweat  and  its 
struggle. 

So  in  all  these  essays,  there  is  no 
formula  for  success.  There  is  only  an 
effort  to  present  the  law  of  success, 
and  that  law  works  out  only  through  the 
individual  himself. 

Success,  achievement,  growth,  lie  in 
the  individual  himself,  not  in  formu- 
lated courses  of  action.  The  old  maxims 
of  success  laid  stress  on  economy — sav- 
ing, the  antithesis  of  waste.  They  were 
false  and  faulty, .  leading  nowhere  be- 
cause they  ignored  the  absolute  essen- 
tial of  success  which  is  production,  cre- 
ation, accomplishment. 

In  these  essays  the  constant  effort  is 
to  stimulate,  to  inspire  the  individual  to 
desire  and  demand  success;  to  demand 
it  of  himself  as  an  obligation  of  his  be- 
ing, and  so  to  put  himself  in  harmony 
and  accord  with  the  law  of  success.  The 
success  most  constantly  held  in  view  is 

[IX] 


PBEFACB 

business  success — money  making;  money 
making  through  the  success  of  business. 
This  is  not  because  there  is  any  thought 
that  business,  money  making,  is  the  only 
kind,  or  even  the  most  important  kind 
of  success.  It  simply  follows  from  the 
original  purpose  and  use  of  the  letters 
out  of  which  these  essays  grew.  They 
were  business  letters  to  men  and  women 
engaged  in  business.  The  success  they 
were  seeking  was  success  in  their  busi- 
ness. The  letters  could  be  useful  only 
as  they  gave  help  in  this  direction. 

But  the  principles  that  run  through 
them  all — or  rather  the  principle — for 
there  is  really  only  one,  that  success 
must  come  through  one's  self,  is  univer- 
sal. It  is  true  of  success  in  all  its  grada- 
tions and  in  all  its  kinds.  Success,  ac- 
complishment, achievement  come  from 
within  and  depend  on  ourselves. 

Many  who  received  these  essays  in 
their  earlier  form  of  letters  have  grate- 
fully expressed  the  value  and  helpful- 
ness they  were  to  them.  In  the  hope 
that  they  may  prove  helpful  to  others 
they  are  presented  in  this  form. 

HERBERT  EDWARD  LAW. 

San  Francisco,  December  1, 1913. 

[x] 


THE  POWER 
OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 


THE  POWER 
OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

THE  Power  of  Mental  Demand 
is  a  potent  force  in  achieve- 
ment. Thought,  the  attitude 
of  the  mind,  affects  the  ex- 
pression of  the  face,  determines  our 
progress  through  life,  and  influences 
and  molds  our  physical  conditions. 

Whether  this  silent  force  achieves 
these  results  through  laws  which  we  do 
not  yet  understand,  or  whether  as  a  con- 
sequence of  the  demand  we  make  on  our 
mental  powers,  we  develop  those  ele- 
ments in  us  which  enable  us  to  effect 
the  things  sought,  does  not  affect  the 
fact.  There  is  illimitable  power  in 
mental  demand.  It  is  the  same  law  in 
the  world  of  affairs  as  that  one  in  the 
spiritual  world  enunciated  so  long  ago, 
"As  thy  day  so  shall  thy  strength  be." 

This  Power  of  Mental  Demand,  like 
every  other  force  in  the  universe,  is  sub- 
ject to  laws.  The  first  one  is  that  it  can 
be  enormously  increased  by  consecutive, 
systematized  effort  to  increase  it. 

[3] 


POTVBR  or  MENTAL  DEMAND 

To  desire  an  end  intently  is,  to  a  prac- 
tical, logical  mind,  to  group  about  the 
effort  to  accomplish  it  every  element  of 
thought,  of  advantage,  of  circumstance, 
of  surroundings,  of  fitness  to  its  achieve- 
ment. It  is  to  summon  and  direct  every 
power  of  the  mind  and  every  element 
of  success  to  the  accomplishment  of  de- 
sire. This  marshalling  of  elements 
which  go  to  make  up  success  is  to  set 
in  train  cause  and  effect.  It  is  the  con- 
dition and  the  only  condition  under 
which  and  through  which  the  entire  ef- 
fort can  be  made  to  apply. 

People  who  make  great  successes  are 
often  thought  of  as  people  of  one  idea. 
They  so  intently  desire  the  thing  they 
aim  for  that  they  exclude  all  distracting 
things.  Thus,  that  measure  of  single- 
ness of  concentration  is  secured  which 
swings  direct  to  the  mark,  when  half- 
hearted effort  loses  its  way,  and  the  will, 
divided,  fails  of  its  goal.  What  intense 
concentration  may  accomplish  is  impos- 
sible to  any  other  measure  of  thought 
and  effort. 

An  electric  current  below  a  certain  in- 
tensity will  not  illuminate.  The  singer 
who  stops  short  of  a  certain  note  is  lost 

[4] 


POWEB  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

in  the  mass  of  mediocrity;  while  the  one 
who  surpasses  by  but  a  comparatively 
small  measure  is  singled  out  for  great 
honors  and  crowned  with  success.  The 
artist  who  gives  that  intangible  but 
requisite  measure  of  feeling  and  force 
to  his  picture  becomes  world  renowned ; 
while  those  who  merely  approach  him 
are  never  heard  of.  In  more  readily 
measured  things,  the  race  horse,  the  ath- 
lete, only  emerges  into  value  or  promi- 
nence when  something  more  than  the 
ordinary  is  accomplished.  Superiority 
by  the  fraction  of  a  second  gains  dis- 
tinction. There  is  in  all  things  no  great 
dividing  line  between  what  we  may  call 
average  success,  keeping  close  to  the 
line  of  mediocrity,  and  that  surpassing 
power  which  singles  out  by  accomplish- 
ment. 

Intentness  of  purpose,  therefore,  con- 
centrating, as  it  does,  all  the  powers  of 
the  mind  and  summoning  all  the  ele- 
ments of  accomplishment,  must  measure 
achievement.  Purpose,  desire,  will, 
must  be  superior  to  the  forces  with 
which  one  contends.  The  contentions  of 
life  are  real,  and  it  is  not  enough  that 
we  make  an  effort.  We  must  make  the 

[5] 


POWEB  OP  MENTAL  DEMAND 

effort  which  subjugates  the  adverse  con- 
ditions about  us  and  turns  them  to  our 
service.  An  effort  to  succeed  must  be 
an  effort  which  brings  success.  This 
intensity  of  desire  is  to  the  human  be- 
ing in  action  what  the  throttle  is  to  an 
engine.  It  governs  the  power,  the  force, 
the  reach,  the  extent — the  achievement. 
It  is  the  electric  button  which  closes  the 
circuit  and  sets  all  the  machinery  of  ac- 
complishment in  motion. 

It  is  this  Power  of  Mental  Demand 
which  makes  the  runner  hold  out  to  win 
the  race.  It  is  that  something  which 
makes  the  soldier  fight  when  he  has  al- 
ready received  his  death  wound.  It  is 
almost  a  supernatural  power,  for  it  con- 
trols and  subjugates  material  condi- 
tions. 

History,  biography,  literature — our 
own  experience,  teem  with  illustrations 
of  incredible  hardships,  of  ceaseless  dif- 
ficulties and  almost  insurmountable  ob- 
stacles overcome,  and  of  tremendous 
endurance  through  resolute  demand  on 
this  unmeasured  source  of  power. 

The  men  of  accomplishment  are  not 
always,  indeed  not  usually,  men  of  great 
physical  power,  nor  seemingly  especially 

[6] 


POWEK  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

adapted  to  the  conditions  under  which 
they  have  achieved.  Often  they  are  the 
reverse  of  these.  They  are  not  often 
even  men  of  superior  genius  except  in  a 
commanding  resolution  to  achieve  which 
steel  cannot  constrain,  which  no  hard- 
ship can  dishearten,  which  no  difficulty 
can  daunt,  which  no  danger  can  weaken, 
which  no  demands  of  physical  force  or 
mental  conditions  can  turn  aside  or  in- 
fluence. There  is  in  that  silent  force 
the  quality  of  steel — it  may  bend,  but  it 
does  not  break.  It  may  subject  itself 
to  a  long  difficult  course,  but  it  never 
loses  sight  of  its  purpose;  therefore  it 
never  fails.  It  is  characterized  by  ver- 
satility, by  tact,  by  resourcefulness;  by 
ceaseless  moves  and  counter-moves  it 
meets  and  molds  the  conditions  neces- 
sary to  its  successful  exercise.  It  is  this 
constant  pressure  of  will  which  sharpens 
the  intellect,  whets  the  energy  and  pol- 
ishes the  endeavor.  This  constant  ap- 
plication of  means  to  ends  gives  tact, 
suggests  strategy,  inspires  courage, 
arouses  activity  and  develops  the  un- 
known powers  within  us,  rounding  them 
out  and  shaping  them  to  its  purpose. 

[7] 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

Failure  is  the  relaxation  of  this  silent 
pressure.  It  is  the  evidence  that  the 
connection  between  resolution  and  desire 
has  been  broken.  Failure  is  not  an  ex- 
ternal condition;  it  is  an  internal  one. 
It  is  a  condition  of  the  mind.  The  com- 
mon error  made  by  most  people  who  fail 
is  that  they  mistake  desire  for  purpose ; 
the  emotion  or  impulse  for  the  steadfast 
unwavering  course  of  action  which  alone 
translates  desire  into  accomplishment. 
They  do  not  vision  with  clearness  that 
since  external  conditions  yield  to  the 
power  of  the  mind,  it  is  to  themselves, 
their  own  attitude  and  mental  control 
that  they  must  look.  Mental  resolve 
must  control  and  develop  the  action 
which  brings  and  makes  possible 
achievement.  Its  strength  and  the 
fullness  of  its  measure  are  determined 
by  the  thoroughness  with  which  the 
active  forces  at  our  command  are  made 
to  respond  to  its  dictates. 

The  dreamy  desires  of  an  idle  brain 
are  not  more  an  achieving  purpose  than 
the  vapor  from  a  simmering  pot  is  the 
steam  power  of  modern  material  civili- 
zation. They  must  both  be  confined,  di- 
rected, and  energized;  in  the  one  case 

[8] 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

by  the  heat  of  enthusiasm  as  in  the  other 
by  that  of  fuel.  Achieving  purpose  is  the 
silent  force  of  mental  power,  which,  once 
formed  and  put  into  action,  never  ceases 
until  its  object  is  obtained.  To  such  a 
purpose  every  power  of  the  mind  is  at 
command.  Such  a  purpose  calls  for  all 
the  resources  and  influence  of  enthu- 
siasm. It  calls  for  all  the  patience,  all 
the  perseverance,  all  the  characteristic 
energy,  all  the  indomitable  force  within 
one. 

Such  a  purpose  goes  further.  It  points 
out  what  these  forces  are  and  how  they 
may  be  obtained  and  developed.  It 
teaches  us  that  perseverance  is  the  first 
element  of  success;  that  labor  is  a 
condition  which  underlies  success.  It 
teaches  us  to  be  ceaseless  in  our  appli- 
cation. It  teaches  us  to  concentrate  our 
thoughts  and  bring  every  energy  to  bear ; 
to  call  up  and  gather  about  us  every 
mental  force  that  can  add  to  our  effort 
or  aid  in  its  accomplishment.  It  is  the 
power  that  permits  no  limit  to  be  placed 
on  the  resources  and  measures  which  are 
to  be  drawn  upon.  It  is  boundless  in  its 
suggestions,  unceasing  in  its  promptings 
and  inexhaustible  in  its  patience  and  en- 

[9] 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

durance.  It  is  a  power  which  makes  us 
grasp  with  a  firmer  hold.  It  is  a  power 
which  compels  us  to  greater  preparation, 
greater  thoroughness.  It  points  out  all 
the  difficulties,  obstacles  and  discourage- 
ments, and  indicates  the  method  of  at- 
tacking them.  It  is  at  once  a  stimu- 
lator and  a  generator  of  energy,  vitality 
and  force;  at  the  same  time  skillfully 
directing  resources,  and  concentrating 
them  where  they  will  do  the  most  good. 

A  second  law  of  this  Power  of  Mental 
Demand  is  that  its  supply  is  illimitable ; 
it  increases  with  use ;  it  responds  to  the 
demands  made  upon  it.  To  demand  res- 
olutely is  at  once  to  increase  the  power 
of  achievement.  It  is  to  widen  one's 
horizon.  It  is  the  first  certain  step  to 
the  absolute  control  of  the  thing  desired. 

Napoleon  said:  " Fortune  is  a  fickle 
jade  and  I  will  demand  everything  of 
her."  The  Power  of  Mental  Demand 
spurns  frugal  use.  Like  the  wanton  it 
yields  only  to  insistent  prodigality.  To 
waste  is  to  increase  it;  to  husband  is 
to  waste  it. 

To  demand  resolutely  is  the  first  step. 
This  is  apparent  in  the  lives  of  all  great 
achievers.  In  their  achievement  you  will 

[10] 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

find  an  effort  wholly  beyond  themselves, 
an  aim  higher  than  they  were  cognizant 
of,  a  courage,  pluck,  perseverance,  bear- 
ing, resoluteness,  the  extent  and  depth 
of  which  they  themselves  did  not  know 
and  the  very  volume  and  momentum  of 
which  carried  them  beyond  the  begin- 
nings of  their  ambitions. 

There  can  be  no  limit  on  the  power  of 
achievement  except  that  put  upon  it  by 
desire.  Desire  makes  possible  that 
which  without  it  would  be  impossible. 
It  makes  every  great  force  subservient, 
and  if  requiring  modification  or  shaping, 
it  shapes  it.  It  seems  an  unreal  power 
because  intangible;  yet  it  is  the  might- 
iest power  in  the  world.  It  is  the  one 
power  that  can  never  be  subjected  to 
any  condition,  any  restraint  or  any  in- 
fluence, except  it  come  from  the  will,  the 
desire  creating  it. 

We  see  a  type  of  this  power  in  Nature. 
The  vital  purpose  of  the  plant  is  to  re- 
produce itself.  If  conditions  are  favor- 
able, it  does  this  in  an  unhurried  way, 
affluent  of  foilage,  flower  and  fruit.  If 
conditions  are  unfavorable,  it  summons 
every  latent  power.  Demanding  the  ut- 
most of  its  vital  power,  no  conditions  of 

tin 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

impoverished  soil,  of  drought  or  expos- 
ure short  of  absolute  annihilation  can 
prevent  the  maturity  of  seed. 

In  the  animal  world  we  find  similar 
illustrations.  In  Hawaii  the  soil  is  lack- 
ing in  bone  building  materials.  And  in 
these  Islands  there  are  frequent  in- 
stances among  cattle  feeding  chiefly  in 
the  mountainous  pasture  lands  where  na- 
tive grasses  are  their  only  food,  where 
the  mother  cow  gives  birth  to  a  strong, 
healthy  calf,  only  to  die  of  weakness  her- 
self because  she  has  given  up  the  ma- 
terial of  her  own  bones  in  order  to  sup- 
ply the  needs  of  her  offspring ;  so  strong 
is  this  demand  that  the  law  of  her  being 
be  fulfilled. 

In  nature  we  see  perfect  results  only 
where  this  indomitable  law,  this  power 
of  demand  does  exist. 

Just  so  does  this  mental  demand  bring, 
through  the  brain,  a  direction  and  con- 
trol of  conditions,  opportunities,  time 
and  all  the  forces  within  us  in  the  meas- 
ure in  which  they  are  needed  to  accom- 
plish the  most. 

Too  much  importance  cannot  be  at- 
tached to  the  strength  of  this  desire,  for 
if  allowed  to  falter,  the  current  that  con- 

[12] 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

nects  cause  and  effect  is  broken.  There 
is  a  lack  of  fidelity  to  purpose.  The  aim 
of  life  is  lost. 

It  is  very  necessary  in  every  under- 
taking that  this  desire  be  first  estab- 
lished and  recognized  and  that  it  be 
planted  on  a  foundation  so  strong  that 
the  element  of  doubt  never  creeps  in. 
If  it  waver  but  for  a  moment  its  force 
is  lost  for  a  time  and  is  very  hard  to 
regain.  It  calls  for  steadfastness  of  the 
highest  order.  It  calls  for  meeting  the 
conditions  in  life  in  a  way  that  will  con- 
tribute to  your  best  physical  condition, 
in  order  that  you  may  be  able  to  respond 
with  the  full  measure  of  your  powers  to 
every  demand  of  your  undertaking. 

This  Power  of  Mental  Demand  is  not 
a  visionary  one.  It  is  a  potent  force, 
which,  if  you  call  upon  it  when  you  are 
discouraged,  will  give  you  hope.  If  you 
call  upon  it  when  you  are  in  doubt,  it 
will  reassure  you.  If  you  call  upon  it 
when  you  are  uncertain,  it  will  indicate 
your  course.  If  you  call  upon  it  when 
you  fear,  it  will  give  you  courage. 

It  is  the  motive  power  which  pushes 
forward  and  sustains  the  methods  and 
energies  necessary  to  the  achievement  of 

[13] 


POWEB  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

purpose.  It  is  the  constant  companion 
on  which  you  can  rely  for  that  kind  of 
advice,  that  kind  of  support  which  re- 
sponds to  your  need  in  exact  quantity 
and  kind.  It  is  that  silent  associate 
which  has  made  achievement  a  certainty. 
It  is  the  store-house  of  your  accomplish- 
ment. 

It  commands  all  the  talent,  all  the  en- 
ergy, all  the  thought,  all  the  purpose 
necessary  to  accomplishment.  It  informs 
the  hand  and  the  brain  what  tools  to  use 
and  how  to  use  them.  It  makes  you 
master  of  the  situation.  It  gives  you 
that  assurance  which  comes  from  the 
sense  of  adequacy.  With  every  added 
atom  of  energy  that  you  throw  into  this 
demand,  you  strengthen  the  brain  cen- 
ters, you  draw  to  you  every  external 
force  contributing  to  mental  power.  Did 
you  ever  realize  the  power  of  this  re- 
solve when  you  wanted  to  make  some 
one  understand  you  without  speaking  to 
him?  Have  you  ever  thought  resolutely 
and  intently  on  a  subject,  and  then  writ- 
ten a  letter,  only  to  find  the  recipient 
of  that  letter  was  impressed  with  the 
same  subject,  in  your  trend,  before  your 
letter  was  received?  Have  you  ever  been 

[14] 


POWEB  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

in  a  room  and  thought  earnestly  and  in- 
tently on  a  certain  subject  and  had  your 
companion  turn  around  and  speak  to 
you  on  the  subject,  voicing  your  very 
thoughts?  Have  you  ever  desired 
greatly  to  see  a  person  and  have  him 
in  a  few  hours  walk  in  without  being 
sent  for? 

These  things  are  neither  accidents 
nor  coincidences.  They  are  too  fre- 
quent and  uniform  in  their  relation  to 
the  putting  forth  of  this  thought  effort. 
The  power  seems  absolute.  The  out- 
come is  sure.  The  forces  operate  with 
singular  constancy.  They  are  not  a 
supernatural  power.  Perhaps  they  are 
but  a  higher  development  of  the  brain. 
They  are  the  achievement  of  a  strong, 
resolute  determination. 

They  are  among  the  first  evidence  of 
a  growing  strength,  of  a  possibility,  of 
a  force  within  one's  self  greater  than 
the  physical  force.  If  you  have  not  ex- 
perienced them  to  their  full  limit  it  may 
be  because  you  have  not  recognized  them, 
because  you  have  not  seen  them,  because 
you  have  not  associated  with  them  in- 
timately enough. 

[15] 


POWER  OF  MENTAL  DEMAND 

With  their  first  experience  will  come  a 
foreseeing  of  the  achievement  that  has 
always  been  before  you  but  never  clearly 
visualized.  They  are  subtle,  though 
definite  and  keen  powers.  Who  can  tell 
their  extent? 

Make  this  mental  demand  on  yourself 
without  flinching.  Call  for  that  out  of 
yourself  which  will  command  success, 
which  will  compel  results.  Make  your 
demand  and  anticipate  its  fulfillment. 
Eespond  to  the  calls  of  your  intelligence. 
Demand  grows  with  the  effort  to  in- 
crease it,  and  power  with  demand. 
These  are  the  laws  of  the  Power  of 
Mental  Demand.  It  grows  with  its  use. 
We  are  what  we  determine  to  be.  We 
are  the  creatures  of  destiny;  but  our 
destiny  is  within  us.  It  must  be 
achieved  by  our  own  effort.  The  means 
of  achievement  is  in  the  Power  of  Mental 
Demand. 


[16] 


WEALTH 


WEALTH 

K:JHES   obtained    under    proper 
conditions  represent  not  mere- 
ly an  accumulation;  they  de- 
velop and  broaden  our  mental 
and  moral  forces.    That  love  of  money 
which  is  the  root  of  all  evil  is  the  covet- 
ousness  of  avarice,  the  love  of  money 
for  its  own  sake.    In  the  acquisition  of 
money   from  this   motive   there   is   no 
growth  of  larger  and  better  power,  no 
uplift,  no  rising  to  a  wider  vision. 

Everything  that  is  of  value  as  a  force 
is  capable  of  benefit  or  harm.  The  force 
of  the  mind  can  be  directed  either  for 
evil  or  for  good.  Eeverie  and  rest  can 
easily  degenerate  into  laziness  and 
brainless,  dreamy  longings ;  or  they  can 
be  directed  and  utilized  for  the  purpose 
of  re-creating  present  forces  and  draw- 
ing to  us  those  that  are  beneficial. 
Beneficent  water  may  become  a  de- 
structive force;  fire,  the  most  vital  agent 
in  human  comfort  and  refinement,  may 
become  a  scourge. 

The  acquisition  of  riches,  if  they  are 
taken  unjustly  from  others,  or  if  they 

[19] 


WEALTH 

have  their  origin  in  covetousness,  are  de- 
structive of  the  best,  like  all  other  mis- 
used powers.  If  riches  flow  through 
proper  channels,  they  have  the  greatest 
possible  power  for  good.  In  modern 
life  they  make  possible  all  the  great 
achievements.  Wealth  cannot  indeed 
buy  us  friends,  but  it  is  a  means  of  in- 
troduction by  which  we  can  gain  valu- 
able friendships. 

Wealth  is  not  a  universal  nor  an  in- 
fallible measure  of  success ;  but  it  points 
the  way  and  furnishes  the  means.  It  is 
both  an  incentive  and  a  goal.  In  the 
usual  and  ordinary  walks  of  life  it  is 
an  essential  concomitant  of  a  high  grade 
success.  The  life  is  more  than  meat  and 
the  body  than  raiment.  But  life  is  poor 
without  these. 

There  is  a  benefit  in  travel,  in  being 
able  to  command  good  things,  in  being 
able  to  entertain  your  friends,  to  gather 
about  you  those  influences  which  add  to 
your  own  forces. 

A  taste  for  the  luxurious,  if  it  stimu- 
lates endeavor,  may  be  your  most  ef- 
fective virtue.  To  dress  meanly,  to  be 
surrounded  with  cheap  furnishings,  to 
be  situated  so  that  the  eye  falls  con- 

[20] 


WEALTH 

stantly  on  that  which  is  repulsive  to  it, 
are  depressing  to  a  refined  spirit,  and 
destructive  of  vital  forces.  To  be  con- 
stantly deprived  of  enjoyment,  to  long 
for  that  which  is  native  to  you,  and 
which  you  cannot  possess  because  you 
cannot  afford  it,  to  be  obliged  to  shun 
your  desirable  friends  because  you  can- 
not meet  them  on  equal  terms  and  en- 
tertain them,  to  deny  yourself  those 
pleasures  in  which  you  find  your  recrea- 
tion and  recuperative  forces,  is  to  live 
a  narrow,  starved,  cramped  existence 
which  stifles  all  that  is  best  within  you. 
Eefinement,  high  ideals,  high  achieve- 
ments are  greatly  affected  by  their  sur- 
roundings and  by  the  inspiration  which 
comes  from  perfect  contentment  and  a 
condition  favorable  to  their  growth.  It 
is  just  as  impossible  to  rear  healthy  and 
normal  children  in  close  rooms  with  a 
stifling  atmosphere,  poor  nourishment, 
and  restricted  opportunities  as  it  is  to 
develop  ideas,  conceptions,  great  plans, 
and  high-spirited  accomplishments  un- 
der starved  mental  conditions.  The 
higher  refinements  come  to  those  having 
a  reasonable  amount  of  leisure;  you  do 

[21] 


WEALTH 

not  get  the  elegance  of  life  from  ex- 
cessive and  incessant  toil. 

That  riches  are  misused,  just  as  all 
other  force  powers  are,  is  true ;  but  their 
misuse  is  not  the  consequence  of  their 
existence;  neither  does  it  diminish  their 
power  for  good. 

It  is  essential  to  have  everything 
about  us  just  as  neat,  just  as  at- 
tractive, just  as  tasteful,  just  as  health- 
ful and  as  inspiring  in  its  influence  as 
possible.  It  is  injurious  to  have  things 
look  mean,  contracted,  unpleasant,  un- 
congenial or  undesirable.  Strong  char- 
acters have  surmounted  all  difficulties 
and  risen  to  a  point  where  they  are 
able  to  surround  themselves  with  these 
helpful  influences;  and  from  that  time 
on  they  achieve  still  greater  things.  At 
the  same  time,  they  would  have  accom- 
plished still  greater  things  if  their  op- 
portunities had  been  greater,  and  if  the 
conditions  surrounding  them  had  sooner 
expanded  their  forces.  It  is  necessary 
in  all  this  thought  to  keep  constantly  in 
mind  that  the  misuse  of  forces  must  not 
be  construed  as  a  characteristic  of  the 
forces. 

[22] 


WEALTH 

Men  of  active  achievement  in  all  ages 
have  almost  invariably  been  compara- 
tively rich  or  financially  prosperous; 
they  have  been  at  least  men  of  large 
earning  capacity.  Washington,  Morris, 
Hancock,  Adams,  revolutionary  heroes, 
D 'Israeli,  Gladstone,  Cavour,  Bismark, 
Gambetta,  European  statesmen  of  un- 
challenged accomplishment  are  exam- 
ples. Asquith  and  Lloyd  George  of 
England  and  Eoosevelt,  La  Follette  and 
Bryan  of  America,  all  men  whose  effort 
and  achievement  have  been  along  lines 
claimed  to  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  un- 
privileged, are  no  less  examples  in  point. 
Their  wealth,  or  what  is  potentially  the 
same  thing,  their  earning  power,  freed 
them  from  that  physical  drudgery  which 
often  chains  up  or  destroys  one-half  of 
the  achievements  of  great  lives. 

High  ideals  are  made  more  possible 
of  realization  by  favorable  conditions. 
Wealth  is  the  consequence  of  achieve- 
ments which  are  the  outgrowth  under 
favorable  circumstances  of  a  conception 
based  on  the  possibility  of  its  achieve- 
ment. Wealth  is  not  the  consequence 
of  industry,  but  the  consequence  of  a 
high  conception  which  is  followed  by  a 

[23] 


WEALTH 

high  quality  of  effort.  Thousands  of 
people  are  industrious  but  they  never 
acquire  wealth.  The  essential  is  that 
industry  shall  be  applied  to  a  high  con- 
ception, to  a  high  ideal,  to  a  high  pos- 
sibility; and  this  possibility  will  not 
grow  out  of  mean  conditions  any  more 
than  purity  will  grow  out  of  vice.  In- 
dustry without  the  use  of  the  mental 
forces  on  a  high  plane  devotes  its  life 
to  labor  of  the  humblest  sort;  it  saws 
wood;  it  carries  bricks;  it  shovels  coal; 
it  repairs  railway  tracks;  it  builds 
roads;  it  does  a  thousand  and  one 
things,  useful  but  not  calling  for  de- 
veloping effort,  which  go  to  make  up 
a  laborer's  life. 

High  mental  forces  guide  the  enter- 
prises in  which  common  labor  is  ex- 
pended. It  provides  the  man  of  low  or 
unawakened  mentality  with  the  oppor- 
tunities of  sustenance.  It  opens  up 
mines;  it  markets  the  product  of  the 
mine.  It  conceives  and  builds,  giving 
occupation  to  the  artisan. 

Mere  saving  does  not  bring  wealth. 
Thousands  scrimp  and  economize  all 
their  lives;  they  squander  when  they 
think  they  save;  they  spend  more  vital- 

[24] 


WEALTH 

ity,  energy,  and  effort  in  saving  than 
in  earning;  they  associate  with  people 
and  have  entertainments  and  surround- 
ings which  are  not  calculated  to  develop 
the  best  there  is  in  them,  or  to  bring 
about  the  high  grade  of  force  which 
makes  every  effort  more  potential ;  they 
narrow  their  outlook  and  restrict  their 
efforts  and  therefore  their  living  is  an 
extravagance  and  not  an  economy.  All 
their  acts  are  thus  devoid  of  judgment, 
are  not  the  consequence  of  well-stimu- 
lated, well-fed  mental  forces,  and  con- 
sequently their  investments  are  unfortu- 
nate. They  put  their  money  where  it  is 
insecure  and  is  lost.  You  can  call  to 
mind  any  number  of  cases  of  that  kind. 
They  make  the  mistake  of  devoting  all 
their  energies  to  labor,  giving  no  time 
to  recreation,  rest  or  reverie.  The  con- 
sequence is,  they  do  not  see  one-half  of 
the  opportunities  of  life;  they  do  not 
get  the  best  from  their  efforts.  "The 
destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  pov- 
erty," their  poverty  of  vision,  of  out- 
look, of  desire.  "Poor  folks  have  poor 
ways." 

The  men  of  wealth  and  great  achieve- 
ments do  not,  as  a  rule,  spend  their  lives 

[25] 


WEALTH 

in  detail  and  hard  physical  labor.  They 
reflect  much;  their  actions  are  the 
consequence  of  deliberate,  concentrated 
forces,  whose  power  is  raised  by  favor- 
able surroundings. 

Few  of  the  old  maxims  for  gaining 
wealth  are  sound  in  this  day, — if  they 
ever  were.  The  requirement  of  the  pres- 
ent day  is  that  the  mental  forces  be 
in  the  finest  accord  with  the  require- 
ments of  achievement;  that  every  sur- 
rounding shall  exercise  a  favorable 
influence. 

Wealth  can  secure  these  surroundings 
and  conditions.  It  is  therefore,  an  emi- 
nent aid  to  great  success.  As  a  power 
for  good,  wealth  is  a  factor  of  tremend- 
ous importance.  It  is  not  the  unin- 
flueritial  solicitor  who  goes  from  door 
to  door  who  accomplishes  the  most  good 
for  charity.  It  is  the  men  of  power  and 
influence,  the  men  of  wealth  who  can 
and  do  surround  themselves  with  every- 
thing advantageous  to  successful  control 
and  command,  and  who  can  direct  that 
command  to  good  ends. 

Your  thoughts  are  a  force;  they  are 
an  absolute  power.  If  you  earnestly 
desire  wealth  by  right  means  that  de- 

[26] 


WEALTH 

sire  will  draw  to  you  all  the  proper 
forces  which  assist  in  its  acquisition.  If 
these  thoughts  and  forces  are  for  good ; 
if  they  are  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring 
wealth  that  you  may  enjoy  it,  but  not 
hoard  it  up ;  in  a  word,  if  the  desire  for 
wealth  is  for  the  good  it  can  effect,  it 
will  accomplish  that  purpose;  every  in- 
fluence and  every  associated  force  will 
be  for  good.  Your  success,  desired  and 
prosecuted  on  proper  lines,  will  bring 
good  to  every  one  with  whom  you  come 
in  contact.  It  will  give  employment  to 
those  about  you ;  will  provide  sustenance 
for  their  families;  will  bring  health 
where  ill-health  has  been.  It  will  give 
you  the  power  to  extend  succor  to  those 
who  are  in  need.  It  will  give  you  the 
power  and  the  means  with  which  to  ex- 
tend the  good  work  and  forces  which 
bring  about  better  conditions  among 
those  needing  and  deserving  them.  In 
a  word,  it  not  only  makes  possible  your 
own  success,  but  in  proportion  as  you 
succeed,  does  it  also  bring  with  it 
opportunities  for  accomplishing  good 
which  without  success  would  be  abso- 
lutely out  of  your  reach. 

[27] 


WEALTH 

Biches,  to  some  extent,  are,  therefore, 
not  only  a  necessity  for  your  own  self 
and  for  the  bringing  to  bear  those  con- 
ditions which  are  favorable  to  your  suc- 
cess and  to  your  greater  achievements, 
but  they  also  bring  to  you  mental  and 
physical  forces  for  good.  They  add  to 
your  power  for  achieving  good  in  all 
lines  in  proportion  as  you  are  success- 
ful. If  you  think  of  nothing  but  poverty, 
you  will  attract  poverty  to  you,  since 
the  force  of  your  thoughts  attract  their 
kind.  If  you  conceive  every  effort  to 
be  a  failure,  if  you  fear  its  non-success, 
then  you  are  attracting  all  the  elements 
of  failure  to  you.  The  thoughts  and 
mental  forces  which  you  have  within  you 
will  always  attract  those  elements  kin- 
dred to  them. 

Suitable  physical  surroundings  and 
conditions  tend  to  induce  the  mental 
state  which  attracts  those  forces  to  you. 
If  you  allow  yourself  to  feel  that  you 
must  always  be  surrounded  by  poverty 
and  hardships  and  difficulties,  you  cre- 
ate the  state  of  mind  which  induces  the 
forces  sustaining  these  conditions.  If 
you  doubt  the  correctness  of  this  fact, 
take  a  fairly  wide  ditch  which  you  can 

[28] 


WEALTH 

just  jump  over;  make  up  your  mind 
positively  that  you  are  going  to  land 
just  a  foot  short  of  the  bank.  You  won't 
be  disappointed;  you  will  land  in  the 
ditch. 

If  you  keep  earnestly  desiring  success, 
and  with  it  its  riches,  you  will  not  only 
be  bringing  all  the  mental  forces  to  bear, 
but  you  will  be  turning  every  external 
condition  as  far  as  lies  in  your  power 
to  that  end;  you  will  be  creating  an 
absolute  demand  for  it.  Whenever  you 
aspire  and  resolve  to  reach  for  some- 
thing higher,  you  make  a  practical  radi- 
cal step  towards  it.  No  achievement  is 
possible  without  first  an  ideal,  and  just 
as  an  ideal  is  the  forerunner  of  an 
achievement,  just  so  is  a  desire,  a  reso- 
lution and  a  mental  force  demanding  a 
certain  condition  the  first  step  towards 
its  achievement.  It  is  the  forming  of 
the  aspiration,  the  desire  which  insures 
achievement,  just  as  the  arranging  of 
a  house  for  the  reception  of  a  guest 
must  be  with  a  view  to  secure  his  com- 
fort. 

Environment  has  a  greater  influence 
than  hereditary.  We  know  what  civili- 
zation has  done,  and  the  forces  which 

[29] 


WEALTH 

have  evolved  the  present  human  being 
out  of  a  savage.  We  know  that  desire 
has  produced  fine,  shapely  trotting 
horses  of  enormous  speed ;  and  we  know 
further  that  all  the  detail  in  effecting 
these  conditions  has  made  them  rapid 
and  certain  in  proportion  as  conditions 
favorable  to  them  could  be  placed  about 
them.  It  has  often  been  said  that  when 
a  person  has  money,  it  is  easy  for  him 
to  make  money.  In  nine-tenths  of  the 
cases,  it  is  not  the  money  which  he  pos- 
sesses that  enables  him  to  make  more, 
but  it  is  the  opportunities,  mental  and 
physical  which  the  money  enables  him  to 
find,  and  the  power  developed  in  him  in 
acquiring  the  money  he  has,  that  brings 
him  the  greater  power  to  further  ac- 
cumulate money. 

Christ  was  not  poor;  he  could  bring 
to  himself  the  best  that  the  world  held; 
he  could  multiply  resources  at  will;  he 
could  command  ten  legions  of  angels, 
Though  when  he  entered  upon  his  min- 
istry he  renounced  the  acquisition  of 
wealth,  he  had,  through  the  power  of 
his  personality,  the  literal  command  of 
all  things  needful,— all  physical,  material 
things.  And  this  power  he  gave  to  his 

[30] 


WEALTH 

disciples  when  lie  sent  them  forth,  so 
that  they  were  supplied  with  food,  rai- 
ment and  shelter.  He  attracted  men  to 
him  so  that  they  gave  the  needs,  the 
associations  and  the  joys  of  life;  and  he 
was  numbered  with  the  rich  in  his  death. 
The  achievement  of  any  end  is  made 
possible  by  the  forces  of  the  mental  de- 
mand, which  in  turn  can  come  only  as 
a  consequence  of  surroundings,  mental 
and  physical,  which  make  the  conception 
possible.  Every  achievement  has  its 
first  existence  in  a  conception.  The  man 
who  made  a  balloon  first  conceived  the 
possibility  of  rising  in  the  air.  The 
man  who  digs  for  gold  first  conceives 
the  possibility  of  its  being  in  the  ground. 
The  man  who  accomplishes  any  purpose 
must  first  have  its  conception  in  his 
mind.  In  proportion  as  our  conditions 
and  surroundings  (mental  and  physical) 
are  of  a  high  order  favorable  to  high 
conceptions,  in  that  proportion  will  they 
come  to  us.  It  therefore  follows  that 
the  desire  for  wealth,  that  the  possession 
of  wealth,  and  the  enjoyment  of  every 
good  thing  which  it  brings,  are  essential 
to  the  world's  highest  achievements,  and 
that  under  these  conditions  and  influ 

[31] 


WEALTH 

ences,  the  greatest  possibilities  become 
realities.  Its  power  for  good  is  im- 
measurably greater  in  its  outcome  than 
its  power  for  evil;  people  who  create 
fortunes  do  not  generally  misuse  them. 

The  thought  or  force  which  comes 
from  one  person  to  another  is  as  real 
as  a  current  of  air  or  electricity.  This 
force  for  good  or  evil  acts  upon  those 
with  whom  you  come  in  contact.  If  an- 
other's  thoughts  are  richer  than  yours, 
if  he  has  more  foresight,  better  judg- 
ment, more  grit,  more  resolution,  more 
executive  force,  more  settled  purpose, 
more  resolute  methods,  those  qualities 
will  be  added  to  your  mental  forces.  It 
is  your  duty  to  give  back  as  good  a 
thought  as  you  receive;  if  you  do  not 
there  is  an  inequality  of  exchange;  if 
your  thought  is  equal  in  quality  to  the 
one  you  receive,  it  is  a  mutually  just 
exchange;  it  is  a  fair  business  transac- 
tion. 

He  who  gets  all  he  can  from  others, 
without  giving  a  fair  equivalent  in  re- 
turn, cultivates  a  meanness,  a  selfishness, 
that  counteracts  the  good  of  his  acquisi- 
tion. This  lack  of  a  fair  exchange  is 
the  basis  of  mental,  spiritual  and  physi- 

[32] 


WEALTH 

cal  poverty  in  every  station  of  life. 
If  we  take  from  others,  we  thereby  ac- 
knowledge our  obligation  to  give  to 
others,  and  we  cannot  make  any  ap- 
proach to  perfection  and  to  the  strength 
which  perfection  brings,  unless  we  dis- 
charge every  obligation  of  our  lives.  Be- 
fore the  tree  can  give  us  its  rich  and 
sustaining  fruit,  it  must  draw  from  the 
air  and  the  earth  the  materials  with 
which  it  may  do  so;  and  in  the  process 
of  drawing  and  using  and  developing 
these  materials  for  beneficent  uses,  it 
grows  stronger.  It  has  robbed  the  air 
and  the  earth  of  nothing  that  they  could 
not  spare,  and  it  has  added  to  its  own 
strength  and  the  wealth  of  the  world. 

Wealth  is  not  a  universal  nor  an 
infallible  measure  of  success.  But  it 
points  the  way  and  furnishes  the  means. 
It  is  both  an  incentive  and  a  goal. 


[33] 


ASSOCIATES  AND 
THEIR  VALUE 


ASSOCIATES  AND 
THEIR  VALUE 

A)CiATEs  have  two  values,  an  en- 
riching value  and  a  recreation 
value.    One  kind  of  associate 
gives  us  something  we  do  not 
ourselves  possess.    The  other  enables  us 
to   relax   and   forget;   to   get   absolute 
mental  rest  by  the  diversion  they  offer ; 
the  change  of  mental  bend  they  give. 

It  is  quite  as  important  to  build  one's 
self — to  re-create — as  it  is  to  be  striving 
for  helpful  gain  every  moment.  An  even 
balance  of  relaxation  and  achievement 
go  well  hand  in  hand.  All  the  great 
leaders  of  the  world  have  been  men  of 
incisive  methods  of  recreation.  Because 
T  like  to  play  golf  does  not  mean  that 
**olf  is  good  recreation  for  some  one 
3lse.  Each  must  do  the  thing  which 
gives  them  recreation.  Eecreation  is  a 
different  thing  to  different  people,  but, 
in  almost  every  case  associates  have 
some  relation  to  it. 

Associates  who  have  ideals,  and  plans, 
and  purposes  with  which  we  are  in  sym- 

[37] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIB  VALUE 

pathy  or  which  are  parallel  or  kindred 
to  ours  develop  in  us  a  keener  zest  and 
the  strength  that  transforms  them  into 
achievement.  The  combined  flame  of 
purpose  creates  a  stronger  draft  and  an 
intenser  flame. 

It  is  just  as  possible  to  get  benefit 
from  an  associate,  even  without  effort, 
as  it  is  to  attract  the  life  giving  elements 
from  the  air. 

But  associates  to  have  an  enriching 
value  must  have  positive  qualities.  They 
must  have  something  to  give  of  force  or 
accomplishment.  That  is  why  common- 
place people  and  commonplace  environ- 
ment, and  the  people  and  things  that 
bore  are  not  helpful.  They  may  be 
harmless  in  their  way,  just  as  people  are 
harmless  as  associates  who  are  uncer- 
tain in  their  action,  undetermined  in 
their  methods  and  unforceful  in  their 
attitude.  They  may  be  harmless  in  their 
way  but  they  are  apt  to  create  a  vacillat- 
ing condition  of  mind,  and  degeneracy 
of  concentration  and  of  habits  of  achieve- 
ment. 

Thoughts  are  companions.  They  in- 
fluence and  lead  us.  They  shape  our 
actions  and  the  tendency  of  our  effort, 

[38] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIB  VALUE 

and  the  impelling  forces  which  are  about 
us.  Unfriendly  and  harmful  thoughts, 
if  persisted  in,  eventually  subjugate  the 
entire  mind  and  control  its  whole  action. 
In  the  production  of  the  most  deadly 
poison  known,  the  manufacturers  have 
extreme  difficulty  on  account  of  the 
proneness  of  the  workmen  to  eat  the 
poison.  For  this  reason,  one  man  is 
never  permitted  in  a  room  alone.  The 
constant  thought  of  its  power  creates  a 
desire  to  taste  it,  which,  workmen  say, 
is  almost  irresistible.  This  illustrates 
how  association  with  an  unwholesome 
thought  entirely  subjugates  the  intelli- 
gence, and  instead  of  warning  off  the 
danger  creates  an  influence  so  strong 
that  good  thoughts, — thoughts  that 
would  carry  away  from  the  danger, 
have  been  entirely  destroyed. 

If  you  start  out  in  the  morning  feeling 
well  rested,  enjoying  the  sunshine,  in 
touch  with  Nature  and  feeling  kindly 
towards  all,  those  are  good  associates 
and  have  a  strong  and  beneficial  influ- 
ence. They  seem  to  bring  to  you  every- 
thing that  is  congenial  to  them,  every- 
thing that  is  a  member  of  their  own 
family.  If  you  get  up  feeling  unrested, 

[39] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

antagonistic,  out  of  harmony  with  the 
world  and  Nature,  everything  will  seem 
to  go  against  you.  Countless  irritations 
will  spring  up.  It  is  this  experience  that 
gave  rise  to  the  saying  that  "it  never 
rains  but  it  pours."  Affinities  always 
come  together,  it  is  possible  to  shape 
your  experiences  before  they  arrive ;  and 
to  determine  their  character  and  their 
influence  on  you  by  the  associates  you 
have  in  your  mind  and  which  will  attract 
their  kind. 

Mothers  in  all  times  have  realized  the 
importance  of  good  associates  for  their 
children.  They  are  careful  not  to  let 
their  boys  associate  with  those  whose 
moral  tone  is  not  good.  If  a  boy's  mind 
runs  to  bad  thoughts,  he  draws  bad  in- 
fluences to  him.  He  will  become  con- 
firmed in  bad  ways  and  influence  others 
in  the  same  direction,  unless  some  other 
mind  acts  on  his  with  sufficient  force  of 
good  to  counteract  the  evil  forces  at 
work  in  his  mind. 

It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the 
importance  of  good  associates.  By  this 
is  meant  associates  who  have  high  aims, 
noble  resolutions,  resolute  characters; 
those  who  are  workers  and  achievers; 

[40] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

those  whose  words  help  us ;  those  whose 
acts  and  influence  stimulate  and  increase 
the  best  forces  in  ourselves. 

The  influence  of  associates  is  very  sub- 
tle, yet  very  powerful.  We  cannot  afford 
to  overlook  their  value  and  seek  their  aid 
any  more  than  we  can  afford  to  overlook 
the  value  of  hygienic  surroundings  and 
general  healthful  conditions.  To  as- 
sociate with  the  courageous,  the  brave 
and  the  ambitious,  will  enable  us  to 
strengthen  or  develop  those  same  qual- 
ities in  ourselves,  and  this  without 
taking  away  from  them.  Indeed,  as- 
sociation acts  and  reacts  on  the  asso- 
ciates. Helpful  associations  are  mutu- 
ally beneficial. 

If  we  associate  with  those  who  have  no 
aim  nor  ambition  in  life,  we  are  getting 
an  influence  which  is  hurtful  to  us  and 
which  we  have  to  throw  off  before  we 
can  again  be  at  the  standard  at  which 
we  began.  It  is  just  as  impossible  to 
derive  benefit  from  ineffectual  associates 
as  it  is  to  obtain  water  from  a  dry  well. 
We  shall  get  from  them  exactly  what 
they  have.  Unless  we  want  to  be  like 
them,  to  have  implanted  in  ourselves 
those  tendencies  or  forces  which  we  find 

[41] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

in  them,  then  we  should  not  associate 
with  them.  It  is  not  of  morals  alone 
that  this  is  trne.  It  is  as  unalterably 
and  as  effectively  true  of  the  forces 
which  influence  our  business  career, 
which  have  to  deal  with  our  courage, 
with  our  action,  with  high  ideals,  with 
lofty  aspirations,  with  a  love  for  work, 
with  the  aims  of  an  achieving  disposi- 
tion; with  the  possession  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  patience,  energy  and  quiet, 
resolute  force.  All  business  men  and 
women  should  make  it  a  part  of  their 
business  and  a  part  of  their  career  to 
choose  such  associates  as  will  be  help- 
ful to  them.  Such  associates  will  be 
restful  and  yet  have  a  power  for  good. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
accumulation  of  forces  of  power  never 
ceases.  It  is  said  that  the  mind  is  not 
at  rest  even  when  we  sleep ;  that  it  goes 
out  on  lines  laid  out  for  it  by  the  as- 
sociates and  thoughts  of  the  day  and 
gathers  to  itself  other  powers,  where  it 
can  find  them,  which  conform  to  the  con- 
dition, to  the  attitude  which  it  is  in.  In 
our  waking  moments  it  is  doubly  true; 
these  forces  are  piling  up  for  themselves 
the  elements  which  they  are  to  spend. 

[42] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

It  rests  with  us  to  determine  what  the 
character  of  these  forces  will  be  just  as 
completely  as  it  rests  with  us  to  deter- 
mine where  we  shall  go. 

Thought  is  an  unseen  force  and  is  ab- 
sorbed, developed,  or  given  out  uncon- 
sciously. You  are  bound  to  feel,  to  judge 
and  to  experience  to  some  extent  the 
same  as  the  person  with  whom  you  as- 
sociate. You  are  influenced  in  a  greater 
or  lesser  degree  by  that  person.  It  is 
probably  different  from  mesmeric  power, 
but  it  is  certainly  a  very  definite  power. 
It  exists  to  such  an  extent  that  people 
often  act  contrary  to  their  own  desires 
when  under  the  influence  of  the  thought 
of  others.  If  they  are  refined  you  will 
become  more  so.  If  they  are  vulgar  or 
common  it  will  lower  your  tone.  Your 
judgment,  your  motives,  your  whole  na- 
ture will  be  injuriously  influenced  by 
them.  You  easily  recall  associates  who 
irritate,  fret  and  worry  you.  You  re- 
member the  unaccounted  for  depression, 
the  sea  of  trouble  you  feel  you  are  in 
when  you  are  with  them.  You  are 
in  an  attitude  that  makes  you  suffer, 
and  you  are  radically  conscious  of  it. 
You  take  no  pleasure  in  their  com- 

[43] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIE  VALUE 

pany  and  you  avoid  it  when  you  can. 
There  are  others  whose  company  you 
as  consciously  or  as  unconsciously  seek. 
You  know  that  you  are  at  rest  when 
you  are  with  them;  the  time  passes 
pleasantly,  and,  as  you  probably  put  it, 
"they  seem  to  understand."  The  fact 
is  that  it  is  not  merely  that  they  under- 
stand. It  is  the  combining  of  two  similar 
forces,  forces  that  have  an  affinity  for 
each  other. 

All  persons  have  this  influence  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree  upon  one  another. 
It  is  not  always  so  definite  and  realizable 
as  in  the  two  illustrations  just  used. 
But  it  exists  and  your  observation  and 
thought  should  be  trained  to  be  keenly 
discriminating  in  this  respect. 

You  recall,  perhaps,  that  some  people, 
when  they  advise  you,  unsettle  your  own 
convictions;  make  you  uncertain  as  to 
what  is  best  to  do ;  they  do  not  give  you 
any  better  plan,  but  throw  doubt  and 
create  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  plans 
you  had  in  mind.  Such  persons  are  an 
absolute  hindrance.  They  have  not  ad- 
vanced to  the  same  degree  of  percep- 
tion and  judgment  that  you  have. 

[44] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

Therefore,  their  influence  is  a  lowering 
one. 

The  old  Chinese  form  of  Government 
included  a  board  of  censors  whose  duty 
and  privilege  it  was  to  criticise  or  find 
fault  with  any  policy  or  method  of  any 
other  branch  of  the  government,  whether 
that  policy  or  method  was  merely  pro- 
posed or  already  put  in  force.  But  this 
power  of  criticism  was  subject  to  one 
very  important  requirement  and  respon- 
sibility. It  must  always  be  accompan- 
ied by  a  proposal  or  plan  for  a  different 
policy  or  method,  together  with  reasons 
why  it  was  better,  and  a  willingness  to 
take  the  responsibility  for  putting  the 
new  plan  or  policy  in  operation. 

In  this  is  the  basis  of  a  good  rule  for 
testing  advice  regarding  your  own  plans. 
Is  the  person  who  advises  you  against 
the  plans  you  have  proposed  or  under- 
taken ready  to  offer  you  different  ones 
and  willing  to  take  the  responsibility  of 
their  working  out  better  than  yours? 

You  live  in  the  thoughts  you  associate 
with.  They  form  a  part  of  the  forces 
which  are  moulding  you  and  forming 
your  character.  It  is  either  moulding 
a  character  for  stronger,  abler,  broader, 

[45] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

more  courageous,  more  resolute  achieve- 
ment, or  it  is  a  breaking-down  process, 
which  is  undermining  and  destroying  the 
possibility  of  adding  forces  to  those  al- 
ready accumulated.  Its  final  result  is 
the  character  it  creates.  Its  immediate 
influence  is  the  happiness  which  you  ex- 
perience, the  contentment  which  you  feel. 
Associates,  whether  thoughts  or  people, 
who  irritate,  fret  or  take  the  mind  in  any 
channel  which  consumes  force  and  vital- 
ity, but  which  gives  no  valuable  return, 
are  as  harmful  as  a  disease.  It  may 
seem  incongruous  to  liken  them  to  con- 
sumption, and  yet  consumption  is  but  an 
eating  up  of  the  vital  powers.  Harmful 
associates  are  not  less  destructive;  they 
attack  a  still  more  important  part  of  our 
existence,  the  mental  and  spiritual. 

Think  good  thoughts  and  they  will  in- 
fluence those  about  you;  they  will  influ- 
ence those  absent  from  you.  You  can 
send  to  these  thoughts  of  help,  thoughts 
of  stimulation,  thoughts  of  encourage- 
ment, thoughts  of  courage,  just  as  cer- 
tainly as  you  can  send  them  a  telegraphic 
message,  expressing  these  thoughts. 

It  is  just  as  impossible  to  have  correct 
methods  of  action  with  faulty  methods 

[46] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

of  thought  as  it  is  to  have  a  correct 
garment  if  it  has  been  badly  cut. 
Thoughts  influence  the  judgment  and 
shape  it.  The  experience  or  thought  of 
an  hour  does  not  stand  alone,  nor  is  its 
influence  confined  to  the  thing  in  hand. 
But  it  is  the  cumulative  effect  of  all  that 
has  existed  before  it  that  is  applied, 
and  is  its  real  governing  and  influencing 
power. 

This  points  out  a  powerful  influence 
that  we  can  exercise  in  our  work  or  busi- 
ness. Our  thoughts  make  and  shape  our 
business.  We  can  make  them  what  we 
will,  and  consistently  train  our  minds 
to  keen,  correct  decisions,  to  effective 
action,  to  spontaneous  support.  This 
assures  us  an  increase  of  power  which 
careless  or  indifferent  thinking  renders 
impossible.  Undirected  thought  makes 
us  and  our  work  the  victims  of  chance. 
The  difference  is  that  between  getting 
exactly  where  we  desire,  and  drifting 
by  accident  wherever  the  tide  or  wind 
of  chance  may  take  us.  The  mastery 
of  our  own  mind  is  to  our  career  what 
a  rudder  is  to  a  ship.  It  is  the  force 
which  can  direct  our  acts  in  such  chan- 
nels as  we  desire. 

[47] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

The  recognition  of  this  fact  gives  us 
a  wonderful  field  of  operation.  Since  we 
can  make  our  thoughts  what  we  will, 
and  since  we  can  draw  to  ourselves  the 
force  of  right  thinking  from  others,  we 
are  in  a  position  to  make  up  life  in  exact 
conformity  to  our  highest  conception, 
our  noblest  ideals,  our  finest  desires. 
We  can  have  for  companions  the  great- 
est thoughts  and  thought  forces  that  have 
ever  existed.  We  can  bring  ourselves 
into  daily  and  hourly  association  with 
the  kind  of  associates  we  want ;  with  the 
power  and  influence  that  the  associates 
whom  we  need  can  bestow.  We  may  as- 
sociate hourly  with  the  great  leaders  of 
the  day;  we  may  be  in  touch  with  the 
greatest  achievers — men  of  action,  men 
of  varied  powers  and  forces,  who  move 
the  world  and  rule  every  channel  of  its 
activity.  Not  only  may  we  thus  select 
our  companions  from  the  greatest  and 
ablest,  and  hourly  associate  with  all  that 
is  most  beautiful  and  most  forceful,  but 
we  at  the  same  time  shape  ourselves  to 
the  end  which  we  desire — just  as  the  tree 
may  be  shaped  by  bringing  to  bear  the 
forces  which  will  train  it  to  the  form  de- 
sired. 

[48] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

The  training  and  shaping  of  the  career 
as  we  would  have  it  is  not  to  be  left  to 
chance.  We  can  do  what  we  will.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  draw  as  largely  as 
others  who  have  trained  longer  and  who 
have  developed  their  powers  of  control 
better  than  we.  But  in  proportion  as 
we  have  exercised  this  power  within  our- 
selves and  taught  ourselves  to  discipline 
our  forces  and  to  train  our  brains, — in 
that  proportion  shall  we  achieve. 

Our  native  condition  has  much  to  do 
with  the  extent  to  which  we  can  direct 
our  ends.  This  has,  unconsciously  per- 
haps to  ourselves,  been  working  steadily 
in  the  direction  of  its  natural  tendency. 
Therefore,  some  of  our  powers  will  be 
stronger  in  the  direction  we  would  have 
them  than  others.  But  from  the  time  of 
the  first  recognition  of  control,  the  power 
to  control  and  shape  is  very  great. 
When  we  come  to  know  the  possibility 
of  this  law,  we  for  the  first  time  under- 
stand why  "we  can  do  what  we  will." 
Our  associates  may  be  made  what  we 
choose;  therefore,  the  forming  of  our 
characters,  the  quality  and  extent  of  our 
growth,  the  limitation  of  our  powers, 

[49] 


ASSOCIATES  AJSD  THEIE  VALUE 

will  be  determined  by  the  desires  we 
establish. 

External  surroundings  have  an  influ- 
ence on  our  thoughts  and  feelings.  A 
long  stretch  of  blue  water  with  its  calm, 
majestic  sweep  has  an  influence.  Green 
fields,  the  flowers,  the  trees,  have  an  in- 
fluence. Attractive  colors,  harmonious 
arrangement  have  an  influence.  The 
very  people  we  meet,  and  their  dress, 
have  an  influence.  Different  sections  of 
cities  exert  different  influences.  There 
is  a  depressing  influence  that  only  deter- 
mination or  a  complete  indifference  can 
withstand  where  suffering,  want  and 
dirt  are  in  evidence  on  every  hand. 
Only  faith  and  vision  can  draw  inspira- 
tion or  stimulating,  clean,  wholesome, 
ennobling  thoughts  from  surroundings 
teeming  with  filth,  and  hideous  with  ugli- 
ness, and  where  a  stifling  atmosphere 
and  suggestion  of  disease  and  misfor- 
tune, and  all  that  go  with  such  a  picture, 
are  pressed  upon  one. 

The  influence  of  external  conditions 
is  evident  when  we  ourselves  are  well 
dressed  and  feel  at  perfect  ease  with 
ourselves ;  and  the  reverse  when  we  are 
poorly  clad  and  meet  some  one  whom  we 

[50] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

would  not  wish  to  see  us  in  that  state. 
That  perfect  feeling  of  ease  and  re- 
sourcefulness of  which  we  are  conscious 
when  everything  about  us  is  correct 
and  pleasing,  does  not  come  when  con- 
trary conditions  exist.  And  so  we  can- 
not overlook  the  fact  that  external 
influences  which  surround  us,  are  in 
themselves  a  very  strong  factor  in  de- 
termining and  maintaining  our  mental 
tone. 

Shape  your  surroundings  and  your 
contact  to  conditions  as  favorable  as  pos- 
sible to  the  generating  of  contentment 
and  of  good  impressions  on  yourself. 
Permit  nothing  to  remain  around  you 
which  irritates  or  worries.  Have  those 
things  about  which  give  you  ease  and 
comfort  and  which  gratify  your  tastes 
and  make  your  surroundings  a  counter- 
part of  your  own  self.  Put  them  in 
harmony  with  yourself,  and  move  any- 
thing from  the  room  that  is  not  in 
harmony  with  you.  It  is  just  as  neces- 
sary that  your  surroundings  be  favor- 
able to  you  and  in  harmony  with  your 
tastes  as  that  the  objects  before  a  camera 
be  suitably  arranged.  The  camera  will 
reproduce  exactly  what  it  sees,  and  so 

[51] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIR  VALUE 

will  the  eye  reproduce  in  the  mind  and 
the  perceptions  what  it  sees.  The  value 
of  selecting  good  surroundings  cannot 
be  over-estimated. 

Many  business  men  are  absolutely  un- 
able to  work  with  any  degree  of  com- 
pleteness except  in  one  spot.  The  little 
sanctum  devoted  to  efforts  for  develop- 
ing plans,  broadening  measures  and 
reaching  out  and  caring  for  great  en- 
terprises is  often  stowed  in  some  remote 
part  of  the  building  thoroughly  inac- 
cessible to  invasion.  Some  religious  or- 
ders have  rooms  which  are  wholly 
devoted  to  certain  states  of  the  mind, 
and  entered  only  by  those  who  seek 
these.  They  believe  that  the  association 
of  the  room  itself  has  much  to  do  with 
attracting  thoughts  favorable  to  their 
purpose.  Such  was  the  Holy  of  Holies 
into  which  no  one  entered  but  the  High 
Priest,  and  he  only  once  a  year  and  after 
the  most  exacting  preparation.  Some 
believe  thoughts,  especially  when  talked 
out  in  a  certain  room,  are  literally  left 
there.  The  more  such  thoughts  are  so 
talked  out,  the  more  completely  they  are 
left  there,  providing  there  is  not  the  dis- 

[52] 


ASSOCIATES  AND  THEIK  VALUE 

traction  of  the  thought  and  talk  of  other 
persons,  different  in  purpose  and  motive. 

Whether  this  is  the  literal  truth  or  not 
is  not  important  in  this  connection.  But 
it  is  true  that  all  of  us  require  a  certain 
place,  and  certain  conditions  for  accom- 
plishing our  best  work.  These  condi- 
tions, free  from  interruption,  should  be 
sought  when  the  heavy  brain  work  of 
your  plans  and  purposes  is  to  be  ef- 
fected. 

Under  some  conditions  long-reaching 
executive  thought  is  impossible.  Every- 
thing seems  to  conspire  against  it.  You 
say  you  are  not  in  the  mood  for  it ;  the 
fact  is,  your  associates  are  not  favorable 
to  it.  Put  yourself  in  a  situation  where 
your  associates  are  favorable  to  it  and 
you  will  get  results — you  will  feel  that 
you  can  think  and  work  out  to  any 
length.  The  difference  will  be  as  radical 
as  though  you  stepped  from  a  cold  room 
to  a  warm  one,  or  as  though  some  person 
antagonistic  and  depressing  to  you  had 
suddenly  left  the  room.  Put  yourself 
and  your  association  in  harmony  with 
your  purpose. 


[53] 


COURAGE 


COURAGE 

COURAGE  is  the  fundamental  fact 
of  success.  It  makes  us  strong 
in  doing  what  we  have  re- 
solved upon. 

Courage  gives  persistence,  banishes 
weakness,  displaces  vacillation  with 
steadiness  of  purpose,  resolves  doubt. 
It  makes  hesitancy  and  irresolution  im- 
possible. It  sends  us  armed  with  confi- 
dence on  our  road  to  success.  Confidence 
and  the  expectation  of  success  draw  to 
us  all  the  qualities  and  mental  forces 
which  contribute  to  success.  Courage, 
therefore,  is  the  vital  element  of  success. 
The  lack  of  courage  creates  mental 
difficulties;  it  constructs  obstacles  and 
barriers ;  it  makes  that  seem  impossible, 
which,  with  the  exercise  of  courage  will 
be  entirely  possible.  The  lack  of  courage 
creates  an  expectation  of  failure,  and 
draws  to  us  all  the  mental  elements  that 
contribute  to  failure.  It  destroys  our 
confidence  in  ourselves  and  in  our  pur- 
pose. It  makes  impossible  that  forceful, 
resolute  attitude  which  compels  success. 

[57] 


COURAGE 

The  absence  of  courage  in  its  relation 
to  accomplishment  is  the  most  vital  hu- 
man defect.  It  is  a  moral  vacuum  which 
draws  into  it  all  that  is  mean,  small, 
contemptible,  shrinking,  vacillating, weak- 
ening, demoralizing  and  destroying.  It 
annihilates  every  noble  impulse. 

Courage  creates  a  resolute,  influential, 
strong  character,  a  determined  will  and 
a  commanding  force.  It  secures  respect 
for  our  aim,  and  confidence  and  interest 
in  our  purpose.  Many  people  failing  to 
cultivate  courage,  wrongly  ascribe  their 
failure  to  obtain  the  things  they  weakly 
desire,  to  causes  outside  of  themselves. 
"We  say,  weakly  desire,  because  strong 
desire  is  not  possible  without  courage. 
A  desire  which  resolves  itself  into  a  com- 
mand draws  out  the  strength  of  all  our 
mental  forces  and  shapes  all  the  physi- 
cal conditions  and  the  surrounding 
influences  favorable  to  achievement. 
Courage  dares  to  command. 

There  is  nothing  that  will  so  over- 
whelm a  man  with  disgrace  and  humil- 
iation as  the  lack  of  courage.  In  the 
soldier  it  exposes  him  to  every  expres- 
sion and  experience  of  the  contempt  of 
his  fellows.  He  is  despised  and  avoided, 

[58] 


COUKAGE 

because  he  is  felt  to  lack  that  very  qual- 
ity which  alone  fits  him  for  the  soldier's 
life  or  the  soldier's  duties — the  only 
quality  that  can  make  him  a  soldier.  So 
in  every  walk  of  life  courage  for  its 
duties,  for  its  achievements — for  its  liv- 
ing— is  so  vital,  that,  lacking  it,  there 
is  no  depth  of  contempt  in  which  one 
is  not  held  by  men  and  women  of  force 
and  action.  There  is  no  heritage  of  in- 
famy so  black  as  the  taunt  of  cowardice 
in  one's  forbears. 

Courage  is  will;  it  is  determination 
that  is  unflinching.  It  is  the  power  that 
achieves.  Cowardice  is  predetermined 
failure. 

Courage,  even  physical  courage,  is  not 
merely  the  absence  of  fear  of  bodily 
harm  or  suffering.  A  stubborn  animal 
cringing  and  fearful  of  its  own  shadow, 
will  sometimes  stand  unmerciful  whip- 
ping, or  be  goaded  into  needlessly  suf- 
fering violent  punishment,  and  yet  lack 
every  principle  of  courage.  And  man  in 
his  motives  and  actions  sometimes  dis- 
plays the  unintelligence  of  the  beast. 

Courage  is  a  positive  quality,  a  contin- 
uing force.  The  effort  which  attempts 
and  fails,  and  makes  no  second  attempt 

[59] 


COUEAGE 

is  not  a  display  of  courage,  but  of  its 
opposite.  Courage  is  never  conquered; 
it  never  gives  up ;  it  never  admits  defeat ; 
it  never  apologizes;  it  never  puts  the 
blame  of  failure  on  something  else. 
Courage  is  persistence ;  courage  is  pluck. 
Courage  is  luck,  because  with  courage, 
success  and  the  achievements  we  desire 
are  brought  into  existence — wrung  as  it 
were  from  fate  or  chance. 

Courage  is  the  resolution  to  conquer. 
It  is  not  a  mere  expression  in  words; 
its  characteristic  expression  is  in  action. 
It  requires  courage  to  exercise  the  pa- 
tience that  gives  the  mental  forces 
rest,  that  arranges  them  and  directs 
them  steadily,  thoughtfully,  deliberately. 
Courage  is  the  basis  of  intelligent  action, 
unyielding  because  it  makes  yielding  un- 
necessary by  the  direction  and  exercise 
of  all  the  principles  which  will  bring 
success. 

Courage  surrounds  itself  with  success- 
ful forces  in  the  same  way  that  a  resolute 
and  skillful  commander  throws  up  en- 
trenchments, establishes  his  lines  of  com- 
munication and  brings  to  bear  all  his 
intelligence,  skill  and  effort  for  the  pro- 
tection and  strengthening  of  his  position. 

[60] 


COURAGE 

Courage  implies  thoroughness,  fore- 
thought, deliberation,  tact.  Courage 
is  identified  with  actions  rather  than 
words.  Mere  vaporing  talk  of  success, 
of  application,  of  resolution,  of  stead- 
fastness is  not  evidence  of  courage. 
Courage  is  a  quiet  force  that  does  not 
talk  of  itself,  but  which  never  thinks  of 
victory  as  impossible. 

The  resolute,  unhesitating  way  with 
which  a  bulldog  attacks  is  an  example 
of  the  brute  force  of  courage.  Yet  the 
bulldog  exercises  a  great  deal  of  intel- 
ligence in  his  methods,  not  because  he 
fears  for  his  existence,  but  because  he 
seeks  success.  He  goes  right  to  the 
heart  of  things;  he  attacks  the  vital 
part.  The  patience,  the  cunning,  the 
deliberation  shown  by  animals  of  un- 
doubted courage  are  substantive  and 
inseparable  elements  of  their  courage. 
They  make  it  an  intelligent  and  effective 
thing  and  not  a  mere  unintelligent  au- 
tomaton. 

Courage  is  indeed  the  exercise  of  all 
the  faculties.  It  brings  to  bear  the  full- 
est intelligence  and  an  unyielding  and 
an  unceasing  effort  until  the  aim  has 
been  achieved.  The  man  who  persists 

[61] 


COUBAGB 

steadfastly  and  resolutely  in  a  purpose, 
and  does  not  relinquish  it  until  he  has 
achieved  it,  exhibits  a  courage  as  high 
and  even  more  arduous  than  the  soldier 
does  who  risks  his  life  in  the  conflict  of 
arms.  It  is  a  moral  courage  of  a  sus- 
tained kind  and  requires  a  stronger 
measure  of  personal  force,  oftentimes, 
than  the  sudden  or  even  heroic  risk 
of  one's  life  or  physical  safety.  Cour- 
age in  its  highest  degree  is  manifested 
in  persistence  and  energy,  with  calmness 
and  patience,  exercised  in  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  great  purpose.  To  be  cour- 
ageous means  both  to  dare  and  to  do. 
The  antithesis  of  courage  is  fear — 
cowardice.  The  man  without  courage 
is  fearful,  a  coward,  craven.  These 
terms  all  express  a  particular  manifes- 
tation of  the  lack  or  absence  of  courage 
— a  manifestation  recognized  and  held 
in  contempt  or  despised.  Fear  makes 
you  doubt  the  likelihood  of  the  success 
of  your  enterprise.  It  weakens  your 
arm  for  the  blow.  It  narrows  your 
mental  forces.  It  draws  to  you  all  that 
is  weak  and  vacillating.  It  creates  doubt 
where  doubt  should  not  exist.  It  leads 
you  to  apologize  and  explain,  first  to 

[62] 


COUBAGE 

yourself,  and  then  to  others,  why  you  do 
not  succeed.  It  drives  you  to  reason 
yourself  into  believing  that  it  is  your 
love  of  luxury,  of  comfort,  of  friends, 
or  something  else  which  compel  you  to 
abandon  your  effort  before  you  have 
achieved  your  end.  A  slave  to  fear, 
you  complain  of  conditions,  you  whine 
at  fate.  It  is  fear  which  prompts  you 
to  belittle  others  in  the  hope  that  thereby 
your  own  lack  of  courage  will  not  be 
discovered. 

The  harboring  of  fear  is  destruction 
of  the  power  of  putting  forth  effective 
effort.  It  paralyzes  the  exercise  of 
force.  It  unconsciously  but  subtly  im- 
presses itself  on  every  one  with  whom 
you  come  in  contact.  These  thought 
forces,  whether  of  fear  or  courage  are 
just  as  potent  as  words  expressed.  It 
is  not  always  possible  to  analyze  or  even 
to  demonstrate  these  thought  forces — 
these  thought  influences — of  fear  or 
courage.  But  they  are  felt  and  have 
their  conscious  or  unconscious  influence 
and  effect  on  those  about  you — a  potent 
influence  in  spite  of  yourself. 

The  man  or  woman  who  says,  "I  will 
go  and  try,  but  do  not  expect  to  sue- 

[63] 


COTJKAGB 

ceed,"  cultivates  all  the  force  of  fear 
and  abandons  all  the  force  of  courage. 
Such  a  one  prepares  for  failure  just  as 
absolutely  as  another  prepares  for  suc- 
cess. It  is  just  as  impossible  to  be  strong 
and  courageous,  resolute  and  determined 
in  effort  when  one  is  constantly  saying 
to  himself,  "I  cannot  do  this,  I  must  fail, 
it  is  impossible,"  as  it  is  to  really  desire 
and  yet  make  no  effort  to  accomplish. 
Cowardice  in  the  business  make-up  is 
the  only  real  obstacle  of  serious  mo- 
ment that  successful  people  have  to  con- 
tend with.  When  it  is  once  removed — 
when  courage  takes  its  place — every 
stroke  adds  to  our  strength  and  brings 
accomplishment  visibly  nearer.  Cour- 
age saves  the  friction  of  fretting;  it 
gives  freedom  from  worry ;  it  gives  con- 
tent to  the  mind  because  it  promises, 
and  its  promises  are  valid  and  certain. 
Fear  destroys  the  high  spirit,  the  am- 
bition, the  commanding  power  that  go 
out  from  us,  shaping  and  forming  that 
which  is  worthy,  and  stimulating  and 
inspiring  aid  to  it  from  others.  Fear 
or  courage  is  the  element  which  deter- 
mines the  fate  of  our  fortunes.  The 
decision  as  to  which  it  shall  be  rests 

[64] 


COURAGE 

with  ourselves.  Courage  includes  res- 
olution and  brings  about  the  fulfillment 
of  the  things  resolved  upon.  No  slavery 
is  so  absolute  as  the  slavery  of  fear ;  no 
shackles  so  heavy  as  those  which  fear 
forges.  No  losses  are  so  heavy  as  those 
which  fear  piles  up. 

Courage  is  the  casting  out  of  fear. 
Fear  and  Courage  are  the  determining 
influences  in  both  individual  and  world 
progress.  The  courageous  unhesitat- 
ingly push  forward  where  others  trem- 
ble, falter  and  hesitate. 

Fear  is  a  negative  force;  courage  a 
positive  influence.  Fear  robs  you  of 
every  manly  instinct,  and  the  power  to 
think  and  to  feel  noble  impulses.  It 
condemns  you  to  associate  with  all  that 
is  weak,  poor  and  undesirable.  Under 
the  slavery  of  fear  you  cannot  think  be- 
cause thought  involves  its  translation 
into  vital  action;  and  impulses  are  only 
noble  as  there  goes  with  them  a  belief 
in  their  accomplishment. 

Clear,  determinate  thinking  is  of  the 
highest  value,  but  is  only  possible  to  the 
courageous  mind.  Avoid  chosen  asso- 
ciation with  people  weak  and  uncertain 
in  thought,  for  they  will  be  incoherent 

[65] 


COUEAGE 

in  purpose  and  doubtful  in  resolve. 
Avoid  it  likewise  with  those  who  lack 
courage,  who  are  hesitating,  doubtful, 
uncertain  in  their  action — those  who  fear 
to  push  out.  Be  resolute  in  following 
your  own  plans.  Have  the  courage  of 
your  convictions.  When  you  once  start 
out  do  not  allow  yourself  to  be  changed 
from  your  course  either  by  the  doubting 
argument  of  others  or  by  the  timorous 
influences  of  your  own  mind.  If  these 
fear-thoughts  come  to  you,  these  courage 
destroying  elements,  throw  them  off. 

Make  it  a  practice  never  to  think  of 
anything  unfavorable  to  your  under- 
taking. Say  to  yourself,  '  *  I  will  be  brave 
and  I  will  accomplish  this  thing;  I  will 
think  of  nothing  else  but  its  accomplish- 
ment; I  will  refuse  to  think  of  it  at  all 
in  connection  or  association  with  the 
thought  of  fear  or  doubt  of  its  outcome; 
I  will  keep  constantly  in  mind  the  re- 
solve, 'I  must  be  successful,  I  will  be 
successful;'  whenever  I  am  tempted  by 
doubt  I  will  drown  it ;  I  will  be  superior 
to  it;  I  will  call  upon  my  mental  forces 
for  the  strength  of  courage,  for  the 
power  of  persistence;  I  will  be  successful 
because  I  desire  to  be,  because  I  have  re- 

[66] 


COUKAGE 

solved  to  be,  because  I  refuse  to  be  un- 
successful; I  know  the  power  of  my 
courage  and  I  will  use  it;  I  have  con- 
fidence in  that  power  and  I  will  rely 
upon  it." 

Do  not  be  influenced  by  proverbs  or 
old  saws.  There  is  one  to  justify  every 
weakness.  They  are  like  the  old  fash- 
ioned candle  extinguisher.  You  can  very 
tidily  and  decently  put  out  a  candle  with 
one,  but  you  can't  light  it  with  one.  Bear 
in  mind  that  others  cannot  know  your 
business  as  well  as  you  do  yourself;  they 
cannot  know  your  mind  nor  the  powers 
and  purposes  in  it ;  they  cannot  measure 
your  ability  to  achieve  because  they  do 
not  know  the  forces  at  your  command. 
"What  they  cannot  do,  or  fear  to  attempt 
is  no  measure  of  what  can  be  done  nor 
of  your  determination  to  do.  The  worth 
while  achievements  of  every  day  life 
everywhere  are  accomplished  after  it  has 
been  demonstrated  that  they  cannot  be 
done.  You  are  a  force  and  a  law  in  your- 
self. The  moment  you  allow  anyone  else 
to  influence  you  against  your  own  good 
thought,  that  moment  you  lose  control 
of  the  element  of  faith  in  yourself  which 
inspires  courage  and  carries  with  it  all 

[67] 


COUBAGE 

those  forces  which  courage  creates.  Just 
the  moment  you  allow  yourself  to  be 
swerved  in  your  course  you  begin  acting 
on  another  person's  thought,  the  motives 
and  mainsprings  of  which  you  do  not 
control.  You  surrender  to  his  direction. 
You  desert  the  courage  and  resolution 
of  your  own  mind  which  alone  are  the 
forces  that  can  sustain  and  carry  you  to 
achievement.  You  accept  the  direction 
of  his,  though  it  counsels  fear  and  in- 
vites failure.  By  permitting  yourself  to 
be  influenced  in  your  purpose  by  another 
person  who  cannot  judge  as  you  can,  you 
permit  yourself  to  be  weighted  down 
with  an  influence  which  cannot  judge 
of  the  conditions  that  exist  because  it  is 
impossible  for  it  to  know  that  most 
vital  and  important  condition  of  all, — 
the  strength  of  your  courage  and  deter- 
mination. 

Be  absolutely  free  from  fear  of  every 
kind — fear  of  want,  fear  of  poverty,  fear 
of  sickness,  fear  of  anything.  Such  fear 
saps  your  strength  at  the  very  outset  of 
effort.  It  arises  from  doubt  of  ability 
in  yourself  of  the  lowest  quality.  Yet  it 
is  fear  of  these  very  things  that  causes 
more  failure  and  inefficiency  than  any- 

[68] 


COURAGE 

thing  else,  because  it  has  become  the 
fixed  habit  of  thought  of  millions  of  men 
and  women.  This  fear-thought  is  borne 
down  on  us  from  every  direction.  Fear 
of  all  kinds  must  be  banished  from  your 
mind.  Fear  of  criticism  of  imperfect 
methods  destroys  the  value  that  such 
criticism  might  have  for  you. 

Fear  has  neither  good  nor  noble  re- 
sults. It  does  not  relieve  your  mind 
from  strain  or  labor.  On  the  contrary 
it  fills  it  with  worry  and  fretfulness. 
It  destroys  mental  forces  which  are  of 
the  greatest  use  to  you.  It  does  not 
stimulate  you  to  action  but  paralyzes 
energy.  It  does  not  surround  you  with 
those  physical  conditions  which  are  fav- 
orable to  success,  since  it  makes  the  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth  impossible.  It  does 
not  surround  you  with  the  opportunities 
for  extending  your  influence,  since  it 
weakens  or  destroys  in  you  the  very 
basis  of  influence  and  power. 

Fear  is  the  most  contemptible,  the 
most  despicable,  the  meanest  opponent 
we  have  to  contend  with.  It  hasn't  even 
the  qualities  of  sin  to  commend  it,  for 
it  does  not  give  even  passing  or  tempor- 
ary pleasure  or  gratification.  Yet  fear 

[69] 


COURAGE 

is  very  pervasive  in  its  quality,  and  in 
its  influence  on  human  life.  We  ought 
therefore  to  resolutely  determine  to  keep 
it  out  of  our  existence.  The  freer  we 
can  keep  our  minds  from  these  destruc- 
tive influences,  the  stronger  we  shall  be 
in  every  respect.  Fret  and  worry  are  the 
moth  and  rust  that  corrupt  our  strength, 
and  fear  is  the  thief  that  breaks  through 
to  steal  our  purpose.  Whenever  you  find 
fear  trying  to  gain  an  entrance  repulse 
it  by  a  resolute  attitude  of  mind  and  a 
strengthening  of  purpose. 

The  power  of  the  individual  to  accom- 
plish is  only  faintly  recognized  by  the 
majority  of  men  and  women.  It  is  only 
a  man  or  woman  here  and  there  who  un- 
derstands this  tremendous  possibility. 
To  believe  you  can  do  a  thing  and  to  have 
the  courage  to  steadily,  confidently  and 
persistently  live  up  to  that  belief,  is  to  go 
far  and  achieve  much.  There  may  be 
difficulties  and  obstacles,  but  resolute 
courage  will  overcome  them  as  nothing 
else  can,  and  that,  whether  they  be  ex- 
ternal difficulties,  or  those  more  serious 
ones,  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  that 
arise  within  us.  Courage  destroys  the 
injurious  and  opposing  forces  by  sup- 

[70] 


COURAGE 

planting  them  with  forces  that  serve  us. 
There  is  thus  a  double  gain. 

Courage  is  the  basis  of  happiness; 
courage  wins  honor  and  respect ;  courage 
makes  friends  for  us;  courage  brings 
contentment;  courage  is  the  best  guar- 
antee of  good  judgment ;  courage  instills 
truth;  courage  brings  patience;  courage 
meets  and  overcomes  adversity.  Cour- 
age gives  life,  makes  failure  impossible, 
gives  self-reliance,  develops  influence, 
gives  forcefulness  and  power  to  thought, 
implants  a  love  for  labor,  is  the  boon 
companion  of  energy. 

Plutarch  says:  "Courage  consists 
not  in  hazarding  with  fear,  but  in  being 
resolute  in  a  just  cause. "  A  phrenolo- 
gist on  examining  the  head  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  said,  "Your  Grace  has  not 
the  organ  of  animal  courage  largely  de- 
veloped." "You  are  right,"  replied  the 
great  man,  "and  but  for  my  sense  of 
duty  I  should  have  retreated  in  my  first 
fight. ' 9  That  first  fight,  in  India  was  one 
of  the  most  terrible  on  record. 

Frederick  the  Great  was  so  stricken 
with  fear  in  his  first  battle  that  he  ran 
away  and  hid  himself  in  abject,  over- 
mastering and  shameless  fright.  But  he 

[71] 


COUBAGE 

lived  to  become,  through  a  sense  of  pride 
and  duty,  one  of  the  great  statesman 
military  geniuses  of  the  world. 

General  Grant  declared  that  he  never 
went  into  a  battle  without  feeling  a  sick- 
ening fear ;  but  that  never  kept  him  out. 
The  hearts  of  many  great  actors  sink 
within  them  every  time  they  face  the 
footlights;  but  that  does  not  keep  them 
from  going  on.  Duty  and  application 
create  courage. 

True  courage  is  the  result  of  a  process 
of  reasoning ;  it  is  a  product  of  the  mind. 
A  brave  mind  is  impregnable  to  assault. 
To  believe  a  business  or  an  undertaking 
impossible  is  the  way  to  make  it  so ;  im- 
possibilities like  threatening  dogs  fly  be- 
fore him  who  is  not  afraid  of  them. 

Courage  like  cowardice  is  contagious. 
Feebleness  of  the  will  indicated  by  spas- 
modic action,  by  fitful  effort  or  lack  of 
persistence  is  a  most  frequent  cause  of 
failure.  The  very  reputation  of  being 
strong-willed,  courageous,  plucky  and  in- 
defatigable, is  of  immeasurable  value. 
Nothing  that  is  of  real  value  is  ever 
achieved  without  courageous  labor. 


[72] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

I    TALKED  this  morning  with  a  man 
who   is   developing  the  wireless 
telephone.     He  was  aglow  with 
confidence  in  what  would  speedily 
be  accomplished  by  it.     Distance   and 
media  would  be  annihilated.     Soon,  he 
believed,  we  would  be  able  to  talk  plainly 
and  readily  to  the  man  in  the  submarine, 
forty  fathoms   below  the   surface  and 
a  thousand  miles  away,  or  to  a  friend 
traveling  in  China. 

As  though  suddenly  conscious  that  his 
confidence  might  seem  extravagant  he 
said:  "You  think  I'm  crazy,  don't 
you?" 

"I  do  not,"  I  replied.  Nor  was  this 
mere  kindly  or  tactful  politeness.  For 
in  my  mind  ran  this  thought :  "I  know 
that  wireless  telegraphy  transmits,  and 
something  of  how  it  does  it;  and  won- 
derful as  this  is  I  know  that  thought 
and  mental  control  is  transmitted  from 
one  individual  to  another,  although  I  do 
not  know  how  it  is  done.  The  wireless 
telephone  to  me  seems  less  marvelous 

[75] 


MENTAL,  CONTROL 

than  this  projecting  of  thought,  of  in- 
fluence, of  unexpressed  commands  or  de- 
sires. Why,  therefore,  should  I  doubt 
the  lesser  marvel  while  believing  the 
greater  ? ' ' 

It  is  with  this  greater  marvel  in  some 
of  its  aspects  that  I  would  now  deal. 
What  are  its  laws,  and  subtle  as  it  is, 
to  what  extent  can  it  be  harnessed  to 
utility  and  made  tangibly  serviceable? 

Man  has  always  utilized  laws  long  be- 
fore he  understood  them.  The  Austral- 
ian bushman  invented  and  skilfully  used 
the  boomerang  without  so  much  as  know- 
ing that  there  were  laws  in  accordance 
with  which  it  acted.  So  thought,  mental 
control,  that  indescribable  grasp  which 
you  have  on  friends  and  associates,  by 
and  through  which  you  receive  and  send 
out  influences,  are  frequently  so  posi- 
tive in  their  operation  as  to  be  of  dom- 
inating direction — in  reality  an  essential 
element  in  the  successful  management 
of  your  business.  Just  as  you  call  on 
your  mental  forces  to  aid  you  in  your 
undertaking,  and  draw  to  you  all  forces 
kindred  to  your  work  and  purpose,  so 
you  can,  and  do,  send  out  thought,  sug- 
gestion, mental  control,  to  your  associ- 

[76] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

ates  and  employes,  for  instance,  which 
are  received  and  acted  on — assimilated 
as  it  were — as  actually,  though  not  as 
consciously,  as  though  they  had  come  by 
the  spoken  or  written  word. 

The  fact  is  there,  though  the  explana- 
tion may  not  be  forthcoming  at  present. 
The  thing  can  be  done — the  thing  is  be- 
ing done.  It  is  a  factor  in  all  great 
achievements  involving  the  combined  ef- 
fort of  many  men.  It  is  the  vital  force 
in  leadership — in  constructive  organiza- 
tion. 

Can  we  consciously,  definitely,  confi- 
dently use  this  power  in  advance  of  the 
discovery  of  the  laws  governing  it?  The 
bushman  invented  and  used  his  boom- 
erang and  doesn't  yet  know  that  there 
are  any  such  things  as  laws  governing  it. 
The  conception  of  natural  law  would 
only  come  by  observing  its  results,  its 
phenomena. 

A  great  business  can  only  be  built  up 
by  the  co-operation  of  many  persons  of 
varying  ability  and  skill  acting  along  a 
common  line  of  endeavor  toward  a  com- 
mon end.  It  will  succeed  in  proportion 
as  the  efforts  of  all  are  co-ordinated  and 
vitalized  by  the  insensible  control  and  di- 

[77] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

rection  of  one  guiding  purpose.  Thus 
this  power  of  mental  control  is  an  essen- 
tial to  successful  business,  and  all  that 
can  be  known  of  how  to  use  it  is  im- 
portant. 

When  you  have  personally  met  an  em- 
ploye you  have  formed  a  mental  relation- 
ship with  him  that  makes  you  much  more 
responsive  and  your  mind  more  recep- 
tive. If  you  write  a  letter  in  a  casual, 
careless  way,  it  has  very  little  influence. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  put  into  writ- 
ing it  your  very  spirit,  the  intense  inter- 
est and  the  very  force  of  your  mental 
powers,  an  awakening  of  interest,  a  re- 
sponsive spirit,  are  aroused  in  the  per- 
son who  receives  it.  It  has  an  entirely 
different  effect  from  what  the  casually, 
carelessly  written  letter  has.  And  yet, 
curious  as  it  is,  the  two  letters  may  not 
be  couched  in  very  different  language. 
But  marshalling  all  your  mental  forces 
not  only  sends  them,  for  whatever  they 
are  worth,  with  your  letter,  but  it 
arouses  in  you  a  keen  perception  of  all 
the  external  sources  from  which  help  can 
come  to  the  one  addressed.  Your  letter 
is  charged  with  a  high  voltage.  It  is  the 
word  with  power. 

[78] 


MENTAL,  CONTKOL 

We  do  not  fully  understand  these 
forces;  we  can  scarcely  hope  to  under- 
stand them  fully  at  present.  We  only 
know  that  they  do  exist,  for  we  feel  their 
influence  in  a  thousand  ways,  some  of 
which  have  been  observed  or  experienced 
by  every  person  who  has  not  shut  his 
eyes  to  them. 

A  ready  but  positive  demonstration  of 
this  mental  control,  this  power,  is  given 
by  the  different  ways  you  treat  different 
persons  with  whom  you  have  business  re- 
lations. Take,  for  instance,  an  agent  or 
an  employe  in  whom  you  have  no  per- 
sonal interest  and  another  in  whom  you 
have  great  confidence,  in  whom  you  cen- 
ter hope,  and  who  draws  from  you  your 
best  thoughts  and  who  inspires  you  to 
your  best  letters.  Write  your  letters  to 
the  one  who  inspires  them,  but  send 
copies  to  the  other  doing  exactly  the 
same  work,  under  exactly  the  same  con- 
ditions. The  one  will  prosper  and  de- 
velop, the  other  will  fail,  or  at  least 
meet  with  but  a  very  meager  success. 
The  intangible  something  in  the  way  a 
thing  is  said,  the  feeling,  the  mental 
control,  spirit  force,  or  whatever  spark 
it  is  that  gives  life,  vitality,  meaning, 

[79] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

feeling  and  inspiration  and  produces 
action,  is  the  subtle  thing  transmitted 
— the  mental  power  that  controls. 

Feel  for  the  employe  the  success  you 
desire  for  him  or  her;  put  into  your 
daily  thoughts  and  wishes  a  strong  de- 
sire for  his  success;  understand  his 
weaknesses  and  desire  that  they  be 
strengthened;  carry  in  your  mind  his 
shortcomings  and  failures  and  desire 
that  they  be  rectified,  and  not  only  think 
out  a  plan  of  work  for  him  but  write 
him  the  strongest  letters  and  put  your 
thought  in  close,  constant  association 
with  him  a  part  of  every  day.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  a  letter  written  with 
such  a  purpose  and  in  such  an  attitude 
of  mind  is  of  more  value  from  what  it 
says  than  from  the  fact  that  in  writing 
it  you  concentrate  your  mind  for  the 
time  being  on  the  individual,  and  thus 
give  to  him  some  of  your  mental  power 
which  he  adds  to  his  own. 

Keep  out  of  your  thoughts  and  asso- 
ciation the  spirit  of  worry,  scolding,  dis- 
content and  kindred  spirits,  for  they  are 
hurtful  to  you  and  to  those  to  whom 
you  send  them.  They  are  hurtful  to  you 
because  they  put  your  mind  in  a  frame 

[80] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

for  receiving  distracting  and  depressing 
impulses  and  materials.  They  are  hurt- 
ful to  those  to  whom  you  are  sending 
thought — mental  control, — because  your 
own  mind  is  turgid  and  muddy  and  hence 
its  stream  cannot  be  clear,  limpid  or  re- 
freshing. 

Every  thought  of  despair  or  doubt  or 
disbelief  in  their  success  transmitted  to 
them  even  involuntarily  makes  the  dif- 
ficulties of  those  you  are  trying  to  lead, 
to  divert,  or  help,  just  that  much  greater. 
Forgetfulness  of  them,  unconcern  for 
their  success,  neglect  or  ignoring  of 
them,  may  produce  a  similar  indifference 
to  their  own  success,  a  similar  doubt 
or  careless  guarding  and  directing  of 
their  own  efforts. 

This  influence,  this  mental  control  with 
which  we  are  now  dealing,  has  a  more 
direct,  positive  power  of  controlling 
others  than  most  of  us  are  prepared 
to  appreciate  because  of  our  limited 
knowledge  of  the  laws  which  govern  it. 
But  that  the  success  or  failure  of  an 
individual  is  greatly  determined  by  lead- 
ership, and  that  this  leadership  is  largely 
a  question  of  one  mentally  acting  on  or 
being  influenced  by  another  is  unques- 

[81] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

tioned.  The  extent  and  quality  of  this 
influence  or  this  leadership  is  limited 
only  by  the  virility  and  the  determina- 
tion with  which  we  exercise  it. 

Nothing  is  ever  at  a  standstill.  We 
are  either  gaining  or  losing.  Effort 
makes  greater  effort  possible,  and  our 
power  to  exercise  control  or  leadership 
grows  as  we  exercise  it. 

There  is  not  a  successful  business  man 
or  a  successful  organizer  who  will  not 
recall  that  many  of  his  employes,  many 
of  his  associates  possess  more  knowl- 
edge than  he  did  when  he  undertook  their 
guidance  or  leadership.  They  may,  per- 
haps, have  had  as  good  opportunities 
for  study,  for  growth  as  he.  But  the 
mere  fact  that  he  undertook  heavier  re- 
sponsibilities, attempted  larger  things, 
determined  on  greater  accomplishment 
and  exercised  the  mental  control  re- 
quired by  this  leadership,  kept  him  in 
advance.  It  is  a  natural  development 
carried  on  and  maintained  unconsciously 
but  in  abundant  fact. 

You  will  find  this  in  the  handling  of 
all  large  bodies,  in  the  leadership  of  all 
businesses.  The  head  of  the  business 
keeps  on  growing.  He  maintains  his 

[82] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

guiding  influence,  his  power  to  control 
through  intelligent  direction,  skillful 
management  and  that  power  to  inspire 
confidence  which  brings  success  to  those 
associated  with  him  and  to  the  enter- 
prise. These  may  be  superior  to  him 
in  many  qualities;  but  until  his  powers 
begin  to  wane,  or  until  he  begins  to  de- 
stroy them,  neglect  them,  or  allow  them 
to  lapse  into  disuse,  his  leadership  re- 
mains intact. 

To  will  resolutely  and  intently  the 
end  that  you  have  in  view  for  an  asso- 
ciate or  employe  is  to  bring  to  bear  every 
mental  force  for  his  success.  It  is  to 
make  him  what  he  could  never  be  with- 
out your  aid.  You  not  only  teach  him 
thoroughness  and  accuracy,  and  the 
skill  and  facility  which  much  concen- 
tration and  thoughtful  desire  will  gen- 
erate, but  you  send  him  along  with  an 
enthusiasm  and  spirit  which,  somehow, 
unconsciously  to  himself,  places  him  on 
the  road  to  success  with  a  splendid  im- 
petus. Enthusiasm  and  the  spirit  of 
success  thereafter  have  a  living  person- 
ality which  they  did  not  have  before. 
They  appeal  as  they  would  not  if  pre- 
sented only  in  cold  type  without  any 

[83] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

personal  touch  or  the  influence  of  a  per- 
sonality going  with  them. 

There  is  something  in  this  mental  con- 
trol which,  though  less  tangible,  per- 
haps, is  more  potent  than  physical  force. 
Its  effect  remains  as  an  impelling,  for- 
ward-going influence.  You  have  taught 
your  employe  or  associate  unconsciously 
to  him,  to  put  himself  in  an  attitude  fa- 
vorable to  his  success.  You  have  made 
him  know  that  this  attitude  of  mind, 
these  mental  forces  which  you  have  de- 
veloped in  him  have  the  power  of  con- 
trolling, governing  and  directing  other 
forces  and  drawing  them  to  him.  Thus 
you  have  put  him  in  the  mental  atti- 
tude capable  of  acquiring  all  that  can  be 
acquired  by  his  individuality  and  in  the 
best  possible  attitude  to  take  that  which 
you  have  to  give.  Your  work  will  be 
greatly  facilitated  and  speeded  if  you 
have  made  him  understand  the  import- 
ance of  keeping  out  of  that  impoverished 
frame  of  mind  which  invites  failure  and 
discouragement,  impatience,  lack  of  per- 
sistence and  kindred  elements  which 
intercept  and  neutralize  the  strong  men- 
tal forces  which  must  be  applied  to  win 
success. 

[84] 


MENTAL,  COETTKOL 

Every  stimulative,  creative  or  helpful 
thought  thus  sent  out  adds  to  and  sur- 
rounds itself  with  all  the  other  additional 
similar  helpful  elements,  and  thus  is 
given  not  only  your  individual  force,  but 
all  the  other  added  forces.  But  in  the 
meantime,  every  helpful  thought  thus 
sent  out  by  you,  has  been  renewed  to 
you  by  thought  sent  out  by  others,  for 
the  control  you  are  exercising  is  react- 
ing upon  yourself ;  and  instead  of  impov- 
erishing you,  like  all  good  exercise,  it 
increases  your  power. 

"No  man  liveth  to  himself  and  no 
man  dieth  to  himself."  It  is  impossible 
for  any  of  us  to  be  freed  from  or  inde- 
pendent of  the  mental  forces  with  which 
our  environment  is  charged,  which  either 
help  or  retard.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  neutrality  of  influence.  These  forces 
are  living  things  and  their  transmission 
a  reality.  They  exist  as  absolutely  as 
the  laws  of  gravity.  The  mind  cannot 
be  freed  from  them.  If  your  employe 
or  associate  does  not  receive  helpful, 
forceful  influences,  he  will  receive  harm- 
ful ones.  The  helpful  ones  go  to  achieve 
your  purpose;  the  harmful  ones  to  make 

[85] 


MENTAL  COSTTBOL 

your  purpose,  through  this  employe  or 
associate,  impossible  of  achievement. 

Continued  separation  from  thought 
exchange  leads  to  mental  starvation. 
There  is  a  narrowing  of  the  horizon  of 
the  mind,  a  weakening  of  the  mental 
powers,  and  some  of  the  milder  forms 
of  insanity  in  its  shades  of  melancholia, 
despondency  and  despair.  Children,  de- 
nied the  association  of  playmates  of 
their  own  years  will  grow  old  before  their 
time,  absorbing  the  spirit  of  the  older 
persons  with  whom  they  are  surrounded. 
To  retain  their  youth  they  need  the  in- 
fluences and  companionship  of  youth  as 
absolutely  as  they  need  physical  exer- 
cise. Like  creates  like;  thought  elements 
come  together  just  as  naturally  with 
those  of  their  own  class  as  all  other  ele- 
ments combine  with  their  affinities. 

It  is  this  thought  element  that  perme- 
ates all  great  organizations.  And  no 
matter  how  much  physical  association 
there  is,  if  there  is  no  affinity  of  thought 
nor  any  harmonious  action  or  reaction 
of  mental  forces,  there  will  be  no  effec- 
tive intelligence  in  its  efforts,  any  more 
than  there  would  be  in  a  gathering  of 
automatons  all  taught  to  say  certain 

[86] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

things  without  any  of  the  thought 
that  goes  with  them. 

In  the  carrying  on  or  management  of 
a  great  business  this  mental  exchange 
puts  you  in  closer  sympathy  and  touch 
with  your  employes  and  associates.  It 
enables  you  to  understand  and  to  know 
intuitively  much  concerning  them  that 
would  otherwise  entirely  escape  you.  It 
enables  you  to  help  them  to  enter  into 
conditions  about  them  with  an  under- 
standing and  appreciation  which  would 
be  utterly  impossible  were  you  not  in 
this  close  and  sympathetic  touch.  It  is 
this  which  gives  you  absolute  control; 
which  influences,  sways,  directs  and 
makes  them  a  part  of  yourself.  It 
combines  in  a  compact  body  the  entire 
membership  of  the  organization,  each 
member  as  intelligent,  as  useful  to  the 
organization,  and  as  necessary  in  the 
care  of  it  as  each  part  of  the  human 
body  is  in  the  service  of  the  body  as  a 
whole. 

The  great  leaders  of  the  world  have 
been  men  of  this  kind  of  influence.  They 
have  attracted  leaders  as  great  and  as 
influential  almost,  as  themselves.  But 
they  have  bound  the  entire  organization 

[87] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

by  the  close  bond  of  this  mental  con- 
trol to  a  single  purpose,  so  that  there 
results  few  mistakes  and  little  loss  of 
effort  in  unprofitable  directions. 

So  close  is  this  influence  of  personal 
contact  and  association  that  you  will 
often  find  those  under  you  writing  let- 
ters which  you  can  scarcely  tell  from 
your  own.  They  will  so  nearly  repre- 
sent your  own  thoughts,  your  own  ideas, 
your  own  motives,  that  they  will  seem 
a  part  of  yourself.  This  is  because 
there  has  become  one  whole,  of  which 
you  and  they  are  each  a  part,  and  as  both 
you  and  they  are  working  for  one  end 
and  are  actuated  by  the  same  spirit  and 
influenced  by  the  same  mental  forces, 
you  naturally  and  inevitably  become 
very  like  in  your  methods,  since  the 
action  of  each  is  the  net  result  of  the 
play  and  inter-play,  not  only  of  ideas 
but  of  this  mental  control  which  is  as 
absolute  and  positive  as  any  physical 
force  in  nature. 

To  get  your  employe  or  your  associate 
into  the  fold,  to  get  him  to  thinking, 
reasoning  and  realizing  as  you  do, — to 
make  him  one  with  you  is  the  first  step. 
In  this  process  more  force  will  be  sent 

[88] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

out  than  is  received ;  mentally  you  never 
let  go;  you  stay  with  them — with  the 
individual.  It  does  not  make  any  dif- 
ference what  his  difficulties,  depressions, 
discouragements  are,  they  do  not  affect 
you  since  you  have  drawn  about  your- 
self a  protecting  cordon  of  successful 
forces.  But  they  will  affect  you  unless 
these  successful  forces  with  which  you 
have  surrounded  yourself  are  very  much 
superior  to  the  unsuccessful  forces  which 
a  new  employe,  for  instance,  very  often 
conjures  up  and  surrounds  himself  with. 
But  if  they  do  affect  you,  you  may  know 
it  is  because  you  have  neglected  to  put 
sufficient  time,  sufficient  thought  and 
concentration  and  force  into  your  direc- 
tion. No  employe  or  associate  can  be 
made  a  success  unless  he  is  thus  taken 
into  the  fold — unless  you  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  his  development. 

Some  people  have  the  unfortunate  and 
disagreeable  tendency  of  attracting  to 
themselves  all  that  is  depressing  and  dis- 
couraging. In  many  instances  they  have 
indeed  come  to  realize  that  they  cannot 
create  confidence  in  other  people  in  their 
line  of  endeavor  if  they  themselves  do 
not  show  evidence  of  faith  in  it.  And 

[89] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

so  they  have  come  to  realize  that  to  talk 
of  misfortunes  and  to  be  blue  is  to  com- 
municate the  same  spirit  to  others.  Just 
as  they  realize  that  to  stand  in  the  cold 
with  little  clothing  on  will  be  likely  to 
chill  them  and  to  bring  on  other  dis- 
agreeable consequences,  so  they  have 
learned  to  avoid  those  obvious  forces 
which  militate  against  success.  But  they 
have  not  realized  that  every  moment 
spent  in  entertaining  discouragements 
and  harping  on  difficulties,  justifying 
failures  and  associating  with  all  the  bad 
company  that  stich  thoughts  bring,  at- 
tract to  themselves  all  there  is  to  be  had 
of  that  sort  of  unsuccessful  forces ;  that 
they  are  weighting  themselves  with  influ- 
ences which  must  be  shaken  off  before 
they  can  rise. 

In  this  practical  management  of  any 
business  it  must  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion that  many  of  the  people  whom  we 
must  take  into  our  fold  have  no  more 
real  experience  in  business  methods  than 
a  child.  They  are  children  in  fact.  Nat- 
urally they  depend  on  us  for  guidance, 
and  unless  this  mental  support  is  forth- 
coming, they  are  not  going  to  be  able  to 
apply  methods  more  effectively  than  the 

f90] 


MENTAL  CONTROL 

most  inexperienced  and  incompetent  of 
us  applied  at  the  beginning  of  our  busi- 
ness. None  of  the  experience  and  teach- 
ings that  we  have  had,  none  of  the  bet- 
ter methods,  none  of  the  wise  avoidances, 
none  of  the  thoughtful  arranging  of  their 
forces  is  going  to  apply  in  their  cases. 
But  if  this  mental  support  is  forthcom- 
ing, everything  that  we  have  learned,  all 
the  time,  money,  training  and  energy 
we  have  spent  in  perfecting  methods  we 
are  going  to  make  available  to  them. 

Your  position  is  like  that  of  a  man 
put  in  charge  of  a  complicated  piece  of 
mechanism.  If  he  does  not  know  any- 
thing about  its  operation  he  will  fail  of 
results  with  it,  notwithstanding  the  ma- 
chine may  be  the  best  made.  As  well 
might  one  put  a  man  in  charge  of  a 
modern  war  vessel  who  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  it  and  expect  him  to  operate 
it  skillfully.  It  is  not  enough  in  such 
a  case  that  the  man  has  been  taken 
through  the  ship,  and  its  machinery  and 
workings  explained  to  him;  it  is  neces- 
sary that  he  be  guided  day  by  day  and 
the  management  of  one  part  after  an- 
other taught  him  until  he  is  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  whole. 

[91] 


MENTAL  CONTKOL 

Just  so  it  is  with  the  new  employe  or 
associate.  Every  day  there  must  be  some 
direction,  some  help,  some  guidance.  It 
cannot  all  be  learned  at  once  any  more 
than  enough  food  can  be  taken  in  one 
day  to  keep  the  body  nourished  and  sat- 
isfied for  six. 

A  prominent  handler  of  large  enter- 
prises recently  said  that  he  never  per- 
mitted a  man  in  his  employment  to  carry 
on  work  in  which  he  had  no  heart.  No 
matter  how  intelligent  a  man  might  be, 
he  said,  failure  would  result  if  he  at- 
tempted to  work  without  this  feeling. 
What  this  man  meant  by  heart  is  the 
mental  co-operation  and  resolution  to 
draw  to  the  task  all  that  is  favorable 
to  its  accomplishment,  and  the  desire 
and  will  to  do  so.  We  find  in  almost 
every  department  of  life  that  in  some 
way,  men  realize  the  need  of  this  per- 
sonal mental  force  for  the  success  of 
their  work.  Some  call  it  by  one  name 
and  some  by  another,  but  there  is  unan- 
imity of  conviction,  the  result  of  long 
experience,  that  unless  there  is  this  affil- 
iation and  friendship,  or  a  high  resolve 
for  his  work,  generating  those  forces 

[92] 


MENTAL  CONTBOL 

that  are  helpful,  the  best  and  completest 
success  will  not  be  secured. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  immeas- 
urable power  bound  up  in  this  mental 
control.  Eealizing  its  influence  is  but 
the  first  step  to  its  universal  applica- 
tion, and  as  each  effort  in  this  direction 
increases  and  makes  possible  greater  ef- 
fort, just  in  that  proportion  will  busi- 
nesses and  movements  and  enterprises 
grow. 

We  are  now  indeed  but  children  in 
the  handling  and  recognition  of  these 
forces  which  surround  us.  The  time  is 
coming  when  the  little  we  now  know  will 
be  increased  by  much  that  we  are  only 
dimly  conscious  of,  or  indistinctly  see. 
The  demonstration  of  the  existence  of 
these  greater  forces  will  come  with  their 
fuller  acquisition.  It  will  come  in  the 
larger  power  to  achieve.  It  will  only 
be  in  the  exercise  of  them,  in  actual  ac- 
complishment through  them,  that  we 
shall  come  to  know  and  to  be  able  to 
measure  their  full  possibilities.  No 
mere  answering  of  the  mail  on  the  desk, 
no  mere  perfunctory  handling  of  the 
routine  of  daily  duties  will  give  us  either 
the  knowledge  or  control  of  these  forces, 

[93] 


MENTAL  CONTEOL 

or  give  us  leadership  or  organizing  abil- 
ity. We  must  believe  in  the  truth  and 
actuality  of  this  mental  control,  and  be- 
lieving, use  it.  We  must  demonstrate 
its  existence  in  our  own  experience.  We 
must  learn  its  use  by  using. 


[94] 


FRICTION 


FRICTION 

WHAT  is  it  that   wears   out 
and  breaks  down  machin- 
ery?    Friction.     What   is 
it    that     wears     out     and 
breaks    down    lives?      Friction.      Fric- 
tion   retards    action,    reduces    product 
and  wastes  power.    It  wears,  destroys, 
kills. 

Friction  is  the  most  constant  problem 
in  mechanics.  It  is  the  most  destruc- 
tive element  in  life.  Literally,  friction 
applies  only  to  physical  objects.  Fig- 
uratively and  metaphorically,  it  applies 
to  life  and  to  individual  and  social  rela- 
tionships. 

As  applied  to  life  it  is  so  apt  a  figure 
of  speech  that  we  do  not  realize  that  it 
is  one  until  our  attention  is  called  to  it. 
We  speak  of  friction  in  an  organization, 
or  between  individuals,  or  in  our  own 
life  and  realize  that  it  is  so  wearing, 
wasteful  and  needless  that  it  seems  the 
very  same  thing  as  the  friction  of  me- 
chanics. We  have  learned  many  devices 
for  reducing  friction  in  mechanics.  We 

[97] 


FEICTION" 

practice  very  few  for  reducing  it  in  hu- 
man life. 

The  greatest  cause  of  friction  in  ma- 
chinery is  a  failure  to  clean  the  machin- 
ery of  the  dirt  it  accumulates.  The 
greatest  cause  of  friction  in  life  is  fail- 
ure to  keep  our  minds  free  from  their 
own  worries  and  cares. 

Few  lives  wear  out  from  overwork, 
but  many  do  from  the  friction  of  fear 
and  fret  and  worry.  To  the  individual 
there  is  a  double  loss.  He  suffers  the 
wearing  pain  of  friction  and  loses  the 
buoyancy  and  resiliency  of  life. 

In  ordering  our  lives  so  as  to  get  the 
best  out  of  them  whether  to  us  that 
best  is  success  in  business,  personal 
happiness  and  content,  or  influence  and 
leadership  over  others,  nothing  is  so  im- 
portant as  to  avoid  hurtful  friction.  I 
say  hurtful  friction,  because  in  life  as 
in  mechanics,  there  is  a  necessary  and 
a  useful  friction.  The  friction  between 
our  shoes  and  the  floor  enables  us  to 
stand  up.  Without  friction  belting  in 
machinery  would  be  useless.  Without 
friction  we  could  grasp  nothing  and  the 
race  would  starve  to  death  and  be  de- 
stroyed from  sheer  inability  to  carry  on 

[98] 


FRICTION 

the  simplest  and  most  ordinary  opera- 
tions. So  in  life  there  is  a  necessary 
and  useful  friction.  The  friction  of  one 
mind  upon  another  has  a  stimulating  and 
wholesome  effect.  And  out  of  the  fric- 
tion which  emulation  and  wholesome 
rivalry  and  strong  influences  produce, 
there  comes  the  best  zest  in  life,  and 
most  of  the  progress. 

The  friction  to  avoid  is  the  unneces- 
sary friction.  Such  friction  as  in  me- 
chanics would  be  caused  by  putting  sand 
in  gearings  or  in  journals.  We  call  that 
sabotage  when  it  is  done  to  destroy  the 
machinery  by  the  workmen  whom  the 
machinery  serves.  But  in  life  we,  our- 
selves, are  guilty  of  most  of  the  sabotage 
which  wears  us  out. 

I  am  going  to  speak  of  some  of  the 
causes  of  friction  which  have  lined  the 
shores  of  time  with  the  junk  of  business 
and  mental  wrecks.  I  speak  first  of 
anger,  malice  and  hate.  The  damage 
these  do  is  pure  sabotage.  They  are 
coarse,  destructive  sand  thrown  into  the 
gearing  of  that  most  wonderful  mechan- 
ism, the  mind.  They  abrade  and  tear  it. 
They  not  only  interfere  with  its  work- 

[99] 


FEICTION 

ings,  but  they  destroy  its  power  to  work 
well. 

Nearly  as  bad,  perhaps  quite  as  bad, 
are  fear,  fret  and  irritability.  They  de- 
stroy in  a  measure  commercially  cal- 
culable. 

Then  there  is  the  finer  sand  and  dirt 
of  bad  habits  of  mind  such  as  lack  of 
concentration,  or  of  continuity,  or  the 
clogging  up  of  the  machinery  by  the 
mere  accumulation  of  details. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  average  man 
or  woman  could  increase  their  mental 
power  thirty  percent  by  the  elimination 
of  friction.  The  mere  statement  of  this 
fact  proves  that  very  thoughtful,  sys- 
tematic and  thorough  effort  should  be 
made  to  avoid  friction  in  every  relation. 
The  effort  should  be  first  to  avoid  it  in 
one's  self.  Never  permit  anything  to 
worry  or  irritate  you.  Simply  make  it 
a  business  principle  that  you  will  not 
be  worried,  that  you  will  not  be  irri- 
tated, that  you  will  not  fret  or  worry, 
and  above  all,  that  you  will  not  allow 
fear,  anger,  malice  or  hatred  to  enter 
your  mind.  Situations  will  arise  and  col- 
lisions occur  which  will  test  this  deter- 
mination. Give  to  each  as  it  arises,  the 

[100] 


best  thought  that  you  possess.  Never 
answer  on  the  impulse  of  the  moment, 
nor  decide  on  a  course  of  action  while 
in  an  irritated  mood.  If  necessary  lay 
the  matter  under  consideration  aside, 
and  take  it  up  twenty-four  hours  later 
when  a  good  night's  sleep  and  a  calmer 
state  of  the  faculties  will  enable  you  to 
see  the  matter  in  a  different  and  a  truer 
light,  and  to  handle  it  more  wisely  and 
effectively.  When  you  are  tempted  to 
take  exceptions  and  be  irritated  over 
what  seems  to  be  an  injustice  or  is  un- 
satisfactory in  any  sense,  put  yourself 
in  the  other  person's  place  and  consider 
from  their  point  of  view.  To  be  just 
requires  reason  and  thought. 

* *  The  man  who  is  in  the  coolest  mood, 
the  most  collected  mood,  the  mood  most 
free  of  either  thought  or  care,  the  man 
who  is  in  the  least  hurry,  the  man  who 
throws  over-board  all  anxiety  as  to  re- 
sults, the  man  who  is  not  too  eager, — who 
can  lie  back  in  his  chair  and  make  a  joke 
or  laugh  at  one  when  millions  are  tremb- 
ling in  the  balance,  who  keeps  all  his  re- 
serve force  until  it  is  needed — that  is 
the  man  who  can  play  the  best  hand  in 
your  game,  and  make  the  best  bargain." 

[101] 


The  contentment  of  mind  that  we  get 
from  our  work  is,  itself  a  matter  of  great 
value.  It  enables  us  to  see  everything 
in  a  cheerful,  promising,  encouraging 
light.  It  enables  us  to  be  interested  in 
everything  about  us,  and  to  forget  our 
business  cares  at  night  because  of  the 
consciousness  that  when  the  day's  work 
has  been  well  done  the  morrow  will  find 
us  able  to  do  that  day's  work  equally 
well. 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  particularly 
of  friction  and  its  effect  on  ourselves, 
but  it  is  not  confined  to  its  effect  on  our- 
selves. It  affects  others.  Its  influence 
extends  in  ever  widening  circles.  In  our 
contact  and  dealings  with  associates  and 
employes  there  should  be  care  to  avoid 
friction.  This  does  not  mean  that  there 
shall  not  be  a  holding  up  to  a  high  stand- 
ard of  performance;  indeed  that  is  one 
of  the  best  ways  to  avoid  friction. 

Too  much  play  in  machinery  causes 
not  only  a  loss  of  power  and  effective- 
ness, but  increases  friction.  Every  well 
balanced  person  can  be  developed  to 
greater  possibilities  by  an  equitable,  just 
management,  expecting  and  requiring 
fulfillment  of  duty.  Laxity  or  permit- 

[102] 


FRICTION 

ting  poor  methods  means  disappoint- 
ment, fretting  and  discontent — friction. 
It  means  more,  for  before  this  fault  can 
be  corrected  stringent  measures  have  to 
be  employed,  and  this  in  itself  may  cause 
friction.  The  fastest  horse,  if  he  is  ex- 
cited or  irritated  may  lose  the  race.  No 
one  can  do  their  best  except  when  they 
have  the  full  control  of  their  faculties; 
and  no  one  can  have  the  full  control  of 
their  faculties  when  they  are  worrying, 
discontented  or  impatient. 

It  takes  an  even,  quiet,  steady  course 
to  produce  the  best  results.  Over  stimu- 
lation is  injurious,  under  stimulation  is 
depressing.  In  either  even  the  result 
to  be  obtained  is  not  easily  possible,  and 
the  friction  which  comes  from  an  unsuc- 
cessful and  disappointing  effort  takes 
away  a  further  element  of  strength  from 
the  best  powers  of  the  individual. 

There  is  no  royal  road  to  harmonious 
relations.  It  is  a  road  of  thoughtful 
management  and  consideration,  and  of 
firm,  even  rigid  requirement  that  each 
one's  duty  be  performed.  Any  careless- 
ness which  destroys  harmony  is  a  crime. 
Any  laxity  that  permits  careless,  inef- 
fective or  poor  methods  is  a  vice. 

[103] 


FBICTIOET 

If  you  have  ever  kept  company  with  a 
rapid  walker  and  had  to  trot  every  mo- 
ment or  two  in  order  to  keep  apace,  you 
know  the  friction  and  irritation  of  such 
a  walk.  Business  furnishes  an  exact 
parallel.  Methods  can  be  taught  just 
as  thoroughly  as  gaits.  Nagging  but  ir- 
ritates and  inflames  and  is  a  product 
of  neglect  of  proper  methods  at  some 
prior  time. 

Mere  contact  with  a  well  balanced  per- 
son will  tend  to  calm  and  settle  a  nat- 
urally irritable  person.  The  oportunity 
for  a  cheerful,  peaceful,  resolute,  quiet, 
influence  in  business  is  great.  Every 
one  with  whom  you  come  in  contact 
should  be  made  to  feel  this  influence, 
to  know  you  for  a  person  character- 
istically strong  in  this  direction.  Some 
one  has  said  that  the  control  and  direc- 
tion of  ourselves  is  two-thirds  of  the 
victory  in  controlling  and  influencing 
others. 

The  mind  free  from  worry  and  friction 
has  always  a  reserve  force.  The  char- 
acter of  thought,  the  method  of  contact 
and  influence  which  we  exert  have  dis- 
tinct value.  It  influences  others  to  gain 
or  loss,  to  enthusiasm  or  depression,  to 

[104] 


FBICTION 

achievement  or  failure.  Its  influence  is 
far  wider  than  either  the  pleasantness 
or  unpleasantness  of  the  association,  the 
sunshine  or  happiness  it  inspires,  the 
content  or  the  discontent  it  engenders. 
It  shapes  the  whole  character  of  our 
business,  the  whole  nature  of  our  rela- 
tions, the  character  of  those  we  come 
in  contact  with,  and  our  own  character. 

To  avoid  friction  in  ourselves  we  must 
not  only  cast  out  the  causes  of  friction, 
but  develop  our  minds  into  effective 
working  conditions.  Friction  is  least  in 
well  designed  and  well  constructed  ma- 
chinery. 

To  avoid  friction  in  our  business  it 
should  be  well  organized,  and  then  it 
should  be  lubricated  with  the  oil  of 
suavity. 


[105] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

GIEAT  businesses  are  not  the  re- 
sult of  chance  or  accident; 
they  are  created  by  an  intense 
and  sustained  desire. 
It  is  not  often  possible  to  see  the  end 
from  the  beginning,  but  that  is  no  rea- 
son for  not  making  a  beginning.  Few 
great  businesses  ever  took  the  exact 
shape  their  creators  pictured  for  them 
at  the  start.  Usually  they  are  bigger 
and  better  and  broader  than  their  crea- 
tors pictured,  because  vision  usually 
broadens  with  the  power  to  achieve. 
When  you  have  found  the  end  of  a  thread 
you  may  not  be  able  to  know  how  many 
twists  and  turns  it  will  take  before  it 
is  finally  unravelled,  or  how  long  it  will 
be;  but  if  you  keep  a  firm  hold  on  one 
end  and  follow  it  up,  be  the  entangle- 
ment ever  so  intricate,  you  will  finally 
unravel  it. 

There  is  no  conception  so  great  but 
that  if  the  effort  to  achieve  it  is  followed 
up  as  the  mind  conceives  it,  it  will  be 
accomplished. 

[109] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

The  mind  is  the  architect  who  first 
draws  the  outlines  of  the  structure  and 
then  fills  them  in.  To  have  a  desire  and 
not  to  supply  it  constantly  with  material 
which  develops  that  desire  into  a  sub- 
stantial reality,  is  like  drawing  the  first 
outlines  of  a  magnificent  structure,  but 
doing  nothing  further  with  it.  It  is 
building  air  castles. 

The  desire  I  speak  of  as  the  creative 
force  in  great  businesses  is  that  intense 
and  sustained  desire,  broadening  and 
strengthening,  which  is  supported  by  the 
conviction  of  the  possibility  of  its  reali- 
zation, and  a  determination  to  realize  it. 
It  is  a  desire  in  which  you  keep  pushing 
on  step  by  step  to  a  greater  unfolding. 
It  is  like  determining  on  a  journey,  and 
proceeding  resolutely  along  the  road. 
Every  step  brings  the  end  of  the  journey 
nearer.  Each  step  is  essential  to  its 
achievement. 

It  is  essential  to  such  creation,  of 
course,  that  back  of  the  desire  there  shall 
be  the  potential  qualities  of  leadership. 
There  must  be  strength  to  support  aims 
and  purposes,  resolution  and  persist- 
ence; the  power  to  shape  a  course  and 
to  know  that  constant  activity  and  the 

[110] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

pushing  of  the  business  are  essential  to 
achievement  at  every  step;  that  the  de- 
velopment of  each  element  and  each  part 
of  the  business  is  essential  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  whole.  To  push  one's 
business,  to  develop  one's  purpose  con- 
ceived in  the  mind  and  resolutely  deter- 
mined on,  means  a  steadfast  application 
to  it,  and  the  bringing  to  bear  upon  it 
with  concentration  and  resolution  every 
mental  force  that  one  possesses.  But 
to  have  resolutely  in  mind  a  purpose  is 
to  have  made  the  first  and  greatest  step 
toward  it. 

The  difference  between  those  who 
achieve  mediocre  success  and  those  who 
rise  high  above  it  is  in  this  mental  reso- 
lution, this  development  of  a  purpose, 
this  pushing  of  a  business. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  the  creation  of 
a  great  business  that  you  understand  and 
realize  at  the  beginning  the  complicated 
problems  that  you  will  have  to  meet  and 
master.  But  it  is  essential  that  you  recog- 
nize the  necessity  of  doing  each  thing 
as  it  arises  to  be  done,  and  doing  that 
thing  well,  doing  it  the  best  within  your 
power.  Whether  a  man  is  a  master  of 
mechanics  or  of  men,  he  became  so  by 

[111] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

learning  one  thing  at  a  time.  The  man 
who  now  controls  great  interests  may 
have  seen  the  time  when  he  had  only  the 
slightest  knowledge  of  the  interests  he 
now  so  easily  directs. 

I  have  repeatedly  said  that  the  ex- 
ercise of  a  faculty  increases  its  power. 
Thus  as  you  exercise  the  faculties  called 
out  and  required  in  building  your  busi- 
ness, their  power  to  meet  conditions 
grows. 

Having  resolved  on  your  business,  now 
proceed  to  push  it  and  push  it  with  every 
hour  that  you  devote  to  business.  Do 
it  thoughtfully;  put  into  it  every  mental 
force  that  you  have  at  your  control. 
The  constant  association,  the  high  re- 
solve with  the  efforts  that  sustain  and 
back  it  up,  give  you  added  strength  for 
the  problems  and  duties  of  tomorrow. 

Having  once  resolved  upon  or  desired 
a  calling,  a  vocation,  a  business,  you  will 
naturally  be  drawn  to  it.  There  is  a 
direct  force  that  carries  you  towards 
the  object  of  your  desire.  Every  day 
you  are  both  consciously  and  uncon- 
sciously working  to  an  end.  And  if  the 
end  is  the  building  of  your  business,  ris- 
ing in  your  business,  making  yourself 

[112] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

a  leader  among  leaders,  then  every  day 
will  find  you  doing  those  things  which 
advance  you  step  by  step  in  that  direc- 
tion. With  the  heart  set  on  a  purpose, 
with  a  love  for  it,  with  a  constant  asso- 
ciation with  it  in  thought,  there  comes 
that  direction  of  effort  that  exercises  all 
tact,  and  all  intelligence,  that  application 
of  abilities  which  in  due  time  will  make 
you  master  of  the  situation. 

Feel  yourself  a  leader — believe  your- 
self to  be  one,  and  you  put  yourself  in 
the  attitude  and  current  that  draws  to 
you  everything  that  contributes  to  that 
end.  Dare  to  aim  high.  Dare  to  dis- 
play the  grit,  the  adhesion  to  purpose, 
the  constant  pursuing  of  methods  which 
shape  toward  the  ends  you  have  selected. 
You  may  not  reach  exactly  the  point 
where  you  aim.  I  have  said  that  few 
great  businesses  shape  themselves  ex- 
actly as  they  were  first  conceived.  But 
you  will  come  close  and  effectively  to 
your  aim. 

Have  confidence  in  yourself.  Eemem- 
ber  that  what  others  have  done  you  can 
do.  Bemember  that  the  first  effort  to- 
wards success  is  the  formation  in  the 
mind  of  a  desire  for  success,  of  a  deter- 

[113] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

mination  to  succeed,  of  a  resolve  that  you 
can  and  will  succeed,  and  that  you  have 
the  genius  for  labor,  patience,  persist- 
ence; and  that  you  have  a  sincere  and 
loving  heart  in  the  enterprise. 

Court  the  position  you  aim  for.  Direct 
both  thought  and  action  toward  it  as 
you  would  toward  the  man  or  woman 
for  whom  you  had  a  great  affection.  In 
an  affair  of  the  heart  there  would  be 
no  grumbling,  you  would  not  use  harsh 
words,  you  would  not  find  fault,  but  you 
would  see  in  the  object  of  your  affection 
all  that  was  beautiful.  You  would  ad- 
mire, respect  and  love  it.  Give  to  the 
accomplishment  of  your  business  pur- 
pose the  same  kindly  consideration.  It 
needs  to  be  courted.  It  needs  to  be 
developed.  This  aim  of  yours  is  your 
destiny  if  you  make  it  so,  but  not  your 
fate.  You  must  work  it  out. 

Having  set  your  aim,  remain  steadfast 
to  it.  Be  faithful  to  your  resolution. 
Eemember  that  steady  plodding  in  one 
direction  makes  headway.  But  that  run- 
ning hither  and  thither  both  fatigues  and 
perplexes.  It  takes  away  the  power  to 
direct  effort,  or  to  effect  purpose.  Keep 
your  mind  clear.  Do  not  destroy  its 

[114] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

clearness  with  fretfulness,  hesitancy, 
doubt,  wavering  or  vacillation.  Teach 
your  mind  to  rely  on  itself,  to  feel  that 
when  once  it  has  reached  a  conclusion 
the  matter  is  settled,  and  that  there  is 
left  no  opening  for  doubt  or  any  disturb- 
ing element  of  any  kind,  or  vacillation. 
All  discussion  or  question  regarding  it 
is  forever  put  behind  you. 

The  head  of  the  credit  department  of 
one  of  the  greatest  mercantile  establish- 
ments in  the  world  once  told  me  that  it 
was  only  possible  for  him  to  successfully 
direct  his  department  by  deciding  each 
question  of  credit  that  came  before  him 
with  the  best  judgment  he  could  bring 
to  bear  on  it  at  the  time,  and  then  re- 
garding the  decision  as  final,  putting  it 
behind  him  as  something  settled  forever. 
To  have  done  otherwise  would  have 
made  every  decision,  no  matter  upon 
what  good  judgment  it  was  based,  the 
source  of  harassing  doubts  and  fears 
which  would  quickly  have  worn  him  out, 
and  rendered  him  incapable  of  sound 
judgment. 

It  is  the  athlete  with  the  best  nerves, 
not  the  strongest  muscles,  who  wins. 
The  nervous,  irritable  fretful  race-horse 

[115] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

is  unreliable.  It  is  just  so  with  business 
men.  A  cool,  quiet,  balanced  brain,  not 
easily  disturbed,  gets  the  best  results. 
Not  only  do  people  have  confidence  in 
the  self-controlled  man,  but  the  power 
of  self-control  is  itself  the  foundation  of 
self-reliance.  It  is  a  known  quantity. 
It  inspires  confidence.  People  place  de- 
pendence on  it,  as  on  the  settled  and 
known  propositions  of  life.  No  one  can 
calculate  on  uncertainties.  No  one  de- 
pends or  relies  on  them.  But  every- 
body relies  on  that  which  is  solid,  un- 
movable,  unchanging,  known.  As  you 
rely  on  these  qualities  in  others,  so  you 
rely  on  them  in  yourself  and  that  is  the 
most  important  thing  of  the  two. 

Having  thus  mentally  determined  upon 
your  course  and  freed  your  mind  from 
all  uncertainties,  you  are  now  in  a  posi- 
tion to  build  your  business  with  a  clear, 
active  brain  free  from  every  purpose 
except  the  absolute  progress  of  your 
business. 

It  is  not  a  difficult  matter  to  build 
business  if  all  the  mental  forces  can  be 
concentrated  upon  the  work  in  hand.  It 
is  the  unsettling  elements,  such  as  worry 
and  indecision  that  detract.  Keen,  vig- 

[116] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

orous,  long-continued  labor  in  the  push- 
ing of  one's  plans  do  not  wear  one  out. 
They  increase  one's  power,  and  though 
they  may  bring  healthful  fatigue,  they 
only  give  sweetness  to  rest,  and  piquancy 
to  recreation.  The  recuperative  powers 
are  not  only  able  to  replace  what  has 
been  consumed,  but  to  give  increased 
strength  through  their  exercise.  And 
thus  each  day's  work  develops  in  the 
mind  the  capacity  for  larger  work  to- 
morrow. It  is  this  growth  of  capacity 
that  makes  possible  the  realization  of 
great  plans.  It  is  this  power  of  capacity 
to  develop  that  relieves  great  projects 
from  ridicule.  It  is  not  the  sudden  in- 
spiration of  genius  that  is  depended  on 
to  accomplish.  It  is  the  daily,  deter- 
mined resolution  that  every  hour  shall 
find  occupation,  and  every  day  its  cen- 
tral aim  further  advanced. 

It  is  just  as  possible  for  you  to  build 
your  business  every  day  as  it  is  for  you 
to  perform  other  daily  exercises.  Many 
of  the  best  things  accomplished  are  those 
in  which  every  step  forward  has  been 
made  without  precise  knowledge  of  what 
the  next  step  was  going  to  be.  You 
simply  know  that  you  mean  to  push  your 

[117] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

business,  that  you  mean  to  go  forward, 
and  you  assure  yourself  by  knowing  that 
the  step  you  are  taking  leads  you  for- 
ward, and  you  will  be  satisfied  to  take 
that  step  firmly,  confidently.  We  do  not 
need  to  know  how  many  steps  there  are 
to  the  top  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument  to 
get  there.  But  we  must  take  one  step 
at  a  time  and  one  step  after  another, 
without  turning  back. 

Our  conception  of  the  possibilities  of 
our  mental  forces  and  what  they  can 
achieve  is  so  limited  and  so  far  below 
the  highest  rational  point  at  which  they 
could  be  held,  that  we  are  much  more 
likely  to  dwarf  our  desires  than  that 
they  should  run  beyond  us.  For,  every- 
day, businesses  are  growing  to  a  magni- 
tude exceeding  anything  of  the  past ;  de- 
veloped, built  up — pushed  to  these  di- 
mensions by  the  very  same  processes  by 
which  small  businesses  are  being  built 
up  into  large  ones.  It  is  the  habit  of 
each  day,  making  one  step  in  advance 
that  will  steadily  mount  you  to  any 
height  which,  you  yourself,  conceive  for 
yourself. 

Let  a  man  give  to  his  business  but 
eight  hours  a  day  of  cool,  concise  and 

[118] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

concentrated  thought  and  he  will  exer- 
cise a  tremendous  power  for  its  advance- 
ment. Start  out  in  the  morning  with  a 
determination  to  make  every  moment 
of  the  day  a  moment  of  pressure  in  push- 
ing your  business,  and  you  will  be  aston- 
ished to  find  out  how  much  more. you 
have  done  that  day  than  you  have  on 
other  days  when  your  effort  was  put 
forth  in  an  indefinite,  indecisive,  uncer- 
tain way,  lacking  positiveness  and  power. 
Handle  every  subject  that  arises  with 
earnest  clearness  and  concentration  of 
mind,  giving  it  the  best  thought  you  can 
bring  to  bear  on  it ;  dispatch  it  and  start 
another  part  of  the  business  along  the 
road,  each  one  in  its  proper  order  and 
you  will  be  surprised  to  find  at  the  end 
of  a  few  days  how  firmly  you  have  your 
business  in  hand,  and  how  much  time 
you  have  for  studying  larger  plans  and 
larger  advancement. 

In  this  position  you  are  absolute 
leader.  You  may  draw  to  yourself  all 
the  forces,  all  the  plans,  all  the  assist- 
ance that  have  ever  been  conceived  or 
suggested  by  others.  It  is  your  business 
to  do  so.  But  in  this  you  will  not  be  a 
parasite,  living  wholly  on  others.  You 

[119] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

will  be  generating  from  within  yourself 
that  something  with  which  you  will  re- 
pay them  by  developing  their  forces  and 
their  strength,  and  you  will  give  them 
in  return  that  which  you  add  to  them 
for  that  which  you  have  attracted  from 
them. 

When  you  are  confident,  determined, 
pushing,  bouyant,  hopeful;  when  your 
courage  is  resolute  and  determined,  you 
influence  all  the  people  about  you,  your 
associates  and  your  employes,  and  you 
inspire  the  same  elements  in  them.  They 
feel  that  you  are  a  leader,  that  you  are 
a  force  which  it  is  safe  to  follow.  It  re- 
acts on  yourself.  It  is  the  unseen  force 
that  pushes  your  business,  that  pushes 
the  business  of  everyone  about  you  and 
starts  those  activities  which  would  never 
see  life  without  this  spirit. 

Business  cannot  be  pushed  by  the  mere 
treadmill  of  application.  To  push  a  busi- 
ness you  must  be  expanding  and  increas- 
ing that  business  in  your  mind.  Every 
great  enterprise  has  been  gone  over 
again  and  again,  detail  by  detail  in  the 
mind  of  the  man  who  is  making  it  grow, 
and  each  time  it  is  gone  over  it  has  as- 
sumed a  little  more  definite  shape  until 

[120] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

finally  it  has  taken  form  and  stimulative 
action  and  becomes  a  reality.  A  great 
accomplishment  is  but  the  crystallization 
of  the  mental  concept  of  that  accomplish- 
ment which  preceded  it. 

Every  successful  man  lives  ahead  of 
his  project;  that  is  to  say,  he  forms  his 
business  before  it  is  evident  to  the  world. 
Whatever  is  done  today  was  thought  and 
planned  out  and  done  mentally  before. 
And  it  was  the  sticking  to  that  mental 
plan  that  brought  about  success. 

Important  plans  should  be  talked  over 
often,  but  only  with  those  whose  interest 
and  motives  are  like  your  own.  It  is 
said  that  James  J.  Hill  talked  out  and 
planned  out  his  first  great  transconti- 
nental railroad  long  before  he  ever 
owned  a  mile  of  railroad  of  any  kind. 

No  business  should  be  allowed  to 
worry  and  harass.  Whenever  a  business 
fags  you  out  there  is  something  wrong 
with  it.  Either  you  are  not  in  harmony 
with  your  business,  or  you  are  gathering 
to  yourself  forces  and  influences  which 
are  hostile  to  your  best  interests. 

Make  your  mind  your  partner  in  busi- 
ness. Love  your  business.  Live  with  it. 
Feel  with  it,  and  make  it  a  beautiful 

[121] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

ideal  in  your  mind,  and  be  as  careful  in 
shaping  everything  for  its  advancement 
and  perfection  as  you  would  if  you  were 
an  artist  in  making  every  stroke  of  the 
brush  add  to  the  element  of  beauty  in 
the  picture.  Guard  your  mind  from  any 
invasion  of  forces  which  are  opposed 
to  success,  which  are  detrimental  to  it, 
which  hold  it  down.  Associate  with  good 
people,  get  the  atmosphere  of  progress 
about  you.  Associate  with  those  who 
repel  those  mental  attitudes  that  are  not 
aggressive  and  progressive. 

Eemember  that  business  does  not  grow 
by  chance.  Growth  is  the  consequence 
of  mental  force  exercised  daily  in  push- 
ing forward  your  plans.  From  this  men- 
tal force  proceeds  every  action,  thought 
and  direction  which  governs  and  controls 
the  actual  operations,  and  even  the  de- 
tails of  your  business.  Do  not  shirk  re- 
sponsibility. Eemember  that  you  are 
the  architect  of  your  own  fortune,  that 
your  business  success,  your  mental  reach, 
your  achievements,  and  the  achievements 
of  those  about  you  depend  upon  the  reso- 
lution and  aim  of  your  mind,  and  upon 
the  pushing  of  your  business  plans  every 
hour  of  your  business  day.  Eemember 

[122] 


BUSINESS  BUILDING 

that  this  brings  not  only  the  greatest 
progress,  but  the  greatest  rest,  the 
greatest  recreation,  the  greatest  natural 
development  any  human  being  is  cap- 
able of. 

Success  does  not  mean  the  mere  ac- 
cumulation of  money.  That  is  but  a  part 
of  the  success  of  which  I  speak.  There 
is  a  success  greater  than  the  mere  ac- 
cumulation of  money.  It  is  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  worthy  purpose,  the  de- 
velopment of  yourself  and  your  asso- 
ciates, the  creation  in  yourself  of  the 
qualities  of  leadership.  It  includes  a 
broadened  vision. 


[123] 


ENTHUSIASM 


ENTHUSIASM 

THEBE  is  no  element  so  import- 
ant in  a  successful  business  or 
a  successful  life  as  enthusiasm. 
Yet  it  is  an  element  often  not 
thoroughly  understood,  or  very  accur- 
ately measured.  It  is  rarely  given  the 
degree  of  importance  to  which  it  is  en- 
titled ;  it  is  often  neglected  altogether. 

Enthusiasm  is  faith  in  action.  "Faith 
believeth  all  things."  Enthusiasm  puts 
that  belief  to  the  test.  The  enthusiast 
believes  that  the  thing  can  be  done;  he 
has  faith  to  believe  that  it  ought  to  be 
done;  he  has  enthusiasm  to  do  it. 

To  the  unthinking  enthusiasm  is  but 
the  foam  on  the  deeply  stirred  waters. 
In  truth,  it  is  the  striving  of  the  waters 
themselves.  It  is  the  very  life  of  effort. 
It  is  to  effort  what  fire  is  to  coal,  what 
steam  is  to  the  engine,  what  a  lighted 
fuse  is  to  a  charge  of  dynamite — the 
vital  force  which  brings  action. 

It  is  enthusiasm  which  gives  sparkle 
to  the  eye,  light  to  the  countenance, 
spring  and  action  to  the  step,  certainty 

[127] 


ENTHUSIASM 

to  the  effort,  and  force  and  vigor  to  the 
movement. 

Enthusiasm  gives  character  and  vital- 
ity to  desire.  It  is  the  difference  be- 
tween wish  and  determination;  between 
the  inanimate  body  and  the  living,  act- 
ing human  being. 

Enthusiasm  is  the  inspiration  of  ef- 
fort; the  power  that  brings  success.  It 
is  the  inward  power  through  which  the 
artist  conceives  an  ideal  and  reaches  it. 
It  is  that  power  within  himself  which  en- 
ables the  actor  to  live  in  his  part.  It  is 
the  irresistible  force  which  sweeps  and 
sways  and  carries  you  when  you  hear  a 
grand  piece  of  music,  or  a  wonderful 
song,  or  a  great  oration.  It  is  the  genius 
of  life.  It  is  that  which  makes  the  dif- 
ference between  the  animate,  living, 
moving,  acting,  accomplishing  forces, 
and  the  dead  forces  of  nature  which  have 
no  movement  of  their  own,  which  have 
no  spirit,  which  have  no  life. 

The  difference  between  work  and  en- 
thusiastic work  is  the  difference  between 
failure  and  success.  It  is  the  difference 
between  work  without  aim,  purpose  and 
determination,  and  work  permeated  by 
faith,  purpose  and  vigor. 

[128] 


ENTHUSIASM 

The  monotonous,  indifferent,  spiritless 
talk  that  fails  to  convince,  fails  because 
it  lacks  faith,  sincerity  and  purpose — 
enthusiasm. 

It  is  enthusiasm  that  convinces  and 
inspires  to  action.  Like  begets  like ;  en- 
thusiasm engenders  enthusiasm.  It  is 
as  positive  as  the  law  of  gravitation.  It 
is  as  far-reaching  as  the  human  mind, 
as  potent  and  forceful  as  imagination 
can  conceive;  it  is  a  power  which  car- 
ries everything  before  it. 

It  is  enthusiasm  directed  to  useful 
ends,  supported  by  worthy  purposes,  and 
carried  by  a  strong  and  noble  intent 
which  has  accomplished  all  that  is  great 
in  art  or  science,  in  religion,  in  reform, 
even  in  business  and  the  prosaic  utilities 
of  life,  which  may  be  as  noble  and  grand 
as  the  other  achievements. 

Enthusiasm  is  both  an  inspiring  and 
a  sustaining  power.  No  great  thing  has 
been  accomplished  without  it,  and  no 
great  thing  but  represents  the  noble  en- 
thusiasm— usually  clearly  traceable, —  of 
some  lofty  soul.  Our  nation  exists  be- 
cause of  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  its 
founders;  the  church  was  built  in  the 
holy  enthusiasm  of  the  Fathers.  The 

[129] 


ENTHUSIASM 

steam  engine,  the  ocean  cable,  the  tele- 
graph, the  aeroplane  and  every  triumph 
of  man  over  the  forces  of  nature  is  a 
monument  to  the  patient,  persistent, 
overcoming  enthusiasm  of  some  man  or 
set  of  men.  The  freedom,  the  democ- 
racy, the  progress  of  the  world  all  bear 
tribute  to  enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm,  faith 
in  action,  the  impelling,  sustaining  and 
accomplishing  power  of  fidelity  to  truth 
and  themselves  made  Washington  the 
Father  of  his  Country  and  Lincoln  its 
Savior,  as  it  was  the  steadfast,  unyield- 
ing element  which  carried  Grant  and  his 
compatriots  through  the  days  of  trial, 
danger  and  uncertainty. 

It  was  enthusiasm  that  enabled  Soc- 
rates to  die  like  a  philosopher;  Zoroaster, 
farther  back  than  memory,  to  live  as  a 
great  teacher;  Confucius  to  implant  en- 
during ideals  in  the  lives  of  an  ancient 
people.  It  was  through  enthusiasm  that 
Mohammed  became  the  prophet  of  Ara- 
bia, and  in  our  time,  of  two  hundred 
millions  of  the  human  race.  It  was  faith, 
enthusiasm,  that  made  Buddha  the  light 
of  Asia,  and  Jesus  Christ  the  light  of 
the  world. 

[130] 


ENTHUSIASM 

Enthusiasm  generates  a  deep-seated 
impulse.  Sometimes  enthusiasts  are 
called  cranks;  but,  after  all,  enthusiasm 
means  resolution  and  confidence  in  one 's 
ability  to  carry  the  task  on  to  success. 
It  means  the  possession  of  an  element 
which  attracts  and  holds  everything  that 
aids  and  strengthens  purpose,  as  cer- 
tainly and  universally  as  the  magnetic 
influence,  or  the  law  of  gravitation. 

Enthusiasm  means  the  conviction 
which  is  every  day  added  to  and  be- 
comes larger  with  every  succeeding  hour 
and  every  added  thought.  It  is  the  ele- 
ment that  a  writer  has  said  "either 
makes  or  breaks  one's  fortune. "  By 
the  thoughtless,  enthusiasm  is  sometimes 
sneered  at  as  a  "hobby;"  but  as  an  old 
educator  says,  "I  believe  in  making  a 
hobby  of  everything  I  go  at,  for  that 
means  success." 

No  man  ever  rose  very  high  who  was 
not  animated  by  enthusiasm.  No  achieve- 
ment that  has  bound  up  the  great  efforts 
of  a  man  has  ever  been  free  from  it. 
Napoleon  said,  "I  would  rather  have  the 
enthusiasm  of  my  soldiers  and  have  them 
half -trained,  than  have  the  best  fighting 
machines  of  Europe  without  it." 

[131] 


ENTHUSIASM 

Enthusiasm  is  an  element  which  noth- 
ing daunts,  which  fears  nothing,  which 
grows  stronger  with  every  difficulty, 
which  expands  with  every  achievement, 
which  is  never  at  rest,  which  accepts  one 
achievement  as  but  the  stepping  stone 
to  another  and  larger.  It  is  that  power- 
ful, irresistible  force  which  finds  grati- 
fication only  in  achievement. 

To  have  enthusiasm  you  must  love 
your  business ;  you  must  be  in  heart  and 
harmony  with  your  undertaking;  you 
must  believe  in  its  broad  reach;  you  must 
have  faith  in  its  greatness;  and  you 
must  realize  that  your  power  in  the 
world  is  subject  to  some  one's  control 
and  that  this  someone  should  be  your- 
self. What  is  willed,  is  already  half 
done,  if  that  will  has  behind  it  the  reso- 
lution and  heart  effort,  the  earnestness 
of  purpose,  the  intensity  of  faith  which 
constitutes  enthusiasm — a  fire  that  burns 
brightly  and  never  lowers  its  flame,  il- 
luminating all  that  is  noble. 

Archdeacon  Farrar  says  of  enthu- 
siasm: "It  implies  an  absorbing,  pas- 
sionate devotion  for  some  good  cause. 
It  means  the  state  of  those  whom  St. 
Paul  has  described  as  *  fervent' — liter- 

[132] 


ENTHUSIASM 

ally  boiling — 'in  spirit.'  It  describes 
the  soul  of  man  no  longer  mean  and 
earthly,  but  transfigured,  uplifted,  di- 
lated by  the  spirit  of  God.  When  a  man 
is  an  enthusiast  for  good,  he  is  so  be- 
cause a  spirit  greater  than  his  own  has 
swept  over  him,  as  the  breeze  wanders 
over  the  dead  strings  of  some  Aeolian 
harp,  and  sweeps  the  music  which  slum- 
bers upon  them,  now  into  divine  mur- 
murings,  and  now  into  stormy  sobs. 
*  *  *  Without  enthusiasm  of  some 
noble  kind  man  is  dead;  without  enthu- 
siasm a  nation  perishes.  Of  each  man 
it  is  true  that  in  proportion  to  the  fire 
of  his  enthusiasm  is  the  grandeur  of  his 
life;  of  each  nation — for  the  nation  is 
but  the  reflection  of  the  individual — it  is 
true  that  without  enthusiasm  it  never 
has  the  will,  much  less  the  power,  to 
undo  the  heavy  burden  or  to  atone  for 
the  intolerable  wrong.  *  *  *  Most 
of  us  are  drowsing  and  slumbering  in 
moral  acquiescence;  the  cry  of  the  mis- 
erable rings  in  our  ears  and  we  heed  it 
not;  the  wayfarer  welters  in  his  blood 
by  the  wayside,  wounded  and  half  dead, 
and  after  one  cold  glance  we  carefully 
pass  by  on  the  other  side." 

[133] 


ENTHUSIASM 

The  influence  of  enthusiasm  is  illim- 
itable. No  one  can  tell  into  what  im- 
measurable fields  the  influence  of  a  single 
enthusiast  can  spread;  being  almost  di- 
vine, the  power  of  enthusiasm  is  an  al- 
most superhuman  power.  If  it  is  based 
on  sound,  earnest  principles  radically 
correct  and  strongly  intrenched,  it  will 
command  the  confidence,  trust  and  sup- 
port of  the  worthy  and  the  forceful 
everywhere. 

When  we  speak  of  enthusiasm,  it  is 
not  of  something  indefinite,  intangible 
and  impossible  of  measurement ;  but  we 
speak  of  a  definite  and  describable  force 
of  tested  and  measured  strength  based 
on  solid,  practical  principles,  the  force 
of  whose  influence,  can  be  made  to  reach 
to  the  accomplishment  of  any  desired 
good.  Peter  the  Hermit  went  bare-footed 
through  Europe  preaching  the  Crusade, 
and  the  most  important  and  far-reaching 
activities  of  the  middle  ages  were  set 
in  motion.  Clarkson  with  a  small  print- 
ing press  and  a  negro  lad,  told  twenty 
millions  of  people  that  slavery  was 
wrong,  and  slavery  disappeared.  It  was 
the  tremendous  enthusiasm  of  Hahne- 
mann  that  founded  the  great  homeo- 

[134] 


ENTHUSIASM 

pathic  school  of  medicine.  Florence 
Nightingale,  through  the  power  of  en- 
thusiasm, created  that  revolution  in  the 
laws  of  war  represented  by  the  Bed 
Cross.  Father  Damien  ministering  to 
the  lepers  of  Molokai,  by  the  power  of 
his  enthusiastic  self-sacrifice  focused  sci- 
entific attention  on  leprosy  to  such  ef- 
fect that  the  extinction  of  this  oldest 
known  disease  in  the  world  is  measur- 
ably in  view.  It  was  the  sublime  faith 
and  invincible  enthusiasm  of  Columbus 
that  revealed  the  new  world. 

Enthusiasm  without  solid  purpose  is 
as  forceless  as  imperfectly  confined 
steam.  Enthusiasm  leads  to  that  thor- 
oughness, that  carefulness  of  campaign- 
ing which  perfects  effort.  It  is  a  power 
to  achieve,  not  merely  to  make  attempts. 

All  great  enthusiasms  have  had  strong 
material  for  their  basis.  They  have 
achieved  because  they  have  been  sound; 
because  they  have  been  thorough;  be- 
cause they  have  been  true. 

Enthusiasm  first  makes  its  appliances, 
its  engines,  providing  the  patience,  toil, 
earnestness  and  persistence  which  are 
necessary  for  creative  achievement.  It 
then  turns  the  steam  into  the  cylinders ; 

[135] 


ENTHUSIASM 

the  wheels  begin  to  turn  and  the  great 
power  stored  up  is  directed  to  moving 
the  products  of  the  world.  It  is  in  much 
the  same  way  that  the  forces  of  the 
brain  are  marshalled.  And  thus  ac- 
complishment expands  and  reaches  out 
to  the  limit  of  our  patience,  our  earnest- 
ness, our  courage  and  the  immovable 
convictions  which  are  within  us. 

It  is  a  frequent  wish  of  youth  that 
it  had  lived  in  the  romantic  and  adven- 
turous past, — instead  of  the  prosaic 
present — when  battles  were  to  be  fought 
and  victories  at  arms  to  be  won;  when 
some  great,  noble  cause  now  achieved, 
needed  leaders  and  soldiers.  But  the 
present  is  no  more  prosaic  than  the  past, 
except  to  prosaic  minds.  The  present 
has  causes  that  need  brave  soldiers  and 
gallant  leaders,  not  less  noble  than  those 
of  the  past. 

Greatness  is  not  the  result  of  sponta- 
neous acquisition  of  power,  it  is  the  gen- 
erating of  power  within  one's  self.  It 
is  keeping  constantly  lighted  that  fire 
of  enthusiasm  which  carries  you  over 
the  disheartening  days  and  all  the  diffi- 
culties; which  makes  you  search  with 
every  dawning  day  some  better  under- 

[136] 


ENTHUSIASM 

standing  of  yourself,  some  stronger, 
closer,  abler  control  and  shaping  all  the 
forces  within  you.  The  difference  be- 
tween a  well-trained  powerful  mind  and 
the  one  that  accomplishes  nothing  in  the 
world  is  the  difference  between  their  en- 
thusiasm and  development. 

We  are  apt  to  look  too  much  to  influ- 
ences beyond,  powers  external  to  us,  and 
too  little  to  the  things  which  are  within 
ourselves.  Bound  up  within  us  there  is 
a  genius  and  a  power  for  achievement, 
the  depth  and  extent  of  which  depends 
entirely  upon  us  and  our  effort.  It  de- 
pends upon  what  we  will;  and  when  we 
say  this  we  mean  that  every  resolution, 
like  every  promise,  ought  to  be  made 
good  by  performance. 

Let  us  not  be  mere  dreamers,  idling 
away  the  grand  opportunities  of  life. 
Let  us  be  men  and  women  of  action,  of 
resolution;  let  us  be  achievers;  let  us 
realize  that  the  world  is  an  open  oppor- 
tunity and  that  there  is  no  limitation 
upon  us  but  that  which  we  place  on  our- 
selves; that  they  who  have  the  courage 
to  say  "I  will,"  can  be  both  captain  of 
their  soul  and  master  of  their  fate ;  and 
that  to  be  master  of  one's  self  and 

[137] 


ENTHUSIASM 

one's  fate  means  the  achievement  of 
all  that  the  heart,  conscience,  nobility 
and  strength  of  personality  desire. 

"If  we  were  to  divide  the  life  of  most 
men  into  twenty  equal  parts  we  would 
find  at  least  nineteen  of  the  parts  merely 
gaps  or  chasms  which  are  filled  neither 
with  pleasure  nor  business.  The  most 
proper  thing  to  fill  in  the  gaps  is  read- 
ing of  well  chosen  books." 

"He  is  not  only  idle  who  does  noth- 
ing, but  he  is  idle  who  might  be  better 
employ  ed." 

"The  peculiar  train  of  thought  which 
a  man  falls  into  when  alone  to  a  degree 
moulds  a  man." 


[138] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

THE  sailor,  going  aloft,  must 
ever  keep  looking  higher  or 
lose  his  poise  and  sense  of 
security.  His  safety,  his  effi- 
ciency depends  upon  it.  The  navigator 
sailing  unknown  and  uncharted  seas 
keeps  the  most  vigilant  lookout  ahead. 

Looking  Forward  is  the  means  of 
both  safety  and  progress. 

Look  forward.  Eemember  that  your 
origin,  what  you  have  achieved,  the  lim- 
itations of  your  calling,  your  difficulties 
and  failures,  are  all  things  of  the  past. 
You  are  not  chained  to  them;  you  are 
liberated  into  a  sphere  as  extensive  and 
broad  as  ever  man  faced.  You  are  like 
the  eaglet  that  is  learning  to  fly;  the 
height  of  your  soaring  may  be  what  you 
make  it. 

Do  not  limit  the  future  by  the  past, 
for  in  the  past  you  were  a  different 
person  from  what  you  are  now.  Con- 
ditions have  changed ;  you  yourself  have 
changed.  Your  horizon  has  widened,  and 
a  conception  and  realization  of  your 

[141] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

powers  has  come  to  you  and  a  develop- 
ment has  taken  place.  You  are  no  longer 
circumscribed  by  the  limited  aims  and 
purposes  of  your  former  life;  you  are 
abreast  with  the  world's  great  leading 
forces.  If  you  will,  you  are  but  in  the 
youth  of  your  business ;  you  have  but  to 
perfect  your  work. 

Have  you  ever  gone  back  to  visit  the 
home  and  scenes  of  your  childhood? 
How  narrow  the  streets  seem!  How 
dull  and  unprogressive  many  of  the 
people  who  in  your  childhood  seemed 
to  you  the  very  essence  of  sagacity  and 
business  acumen!  The  house  with  the 
cupola  that  seemed  so  large,  so  import- 
ant, how  subdued  and  small  it  seems 
now!  The  bridge  near  the  school-house 
that  seemed  such  a  massive  piece  of  en- 
gineering has  dwindled  almost  as  much 
as  the  rivulet  it  spans. 

But  these  things  have  not  changed.  It 
is  you  who  have  changed.  Your  expe- 
rience has  enlarged  you.  Your  mental 
horizon  has  widened.  You  have  grown 
and  you  have  acquired  new  standards  of 
comparison. 

Go  back  among  old  friends.  Some  of 
them  have  grown  as  you  have  and  you 

[142] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

recognize  that  they,  too,  have  been  look- 
ing forward.  Of  others,  who  in  the  years 
that  have  gone  seemed  bright,  active  and 
capable,  you  are  astonished  at  their  lim- 
itations. It  is  not  that  they  have  retro- 
graded. They  have  simply  drawn  down 
the  curtains  of  forward  outlook;  they 
stopped  where  they  were. 

There  are  two  aspects  of  looking  for- 
ward. We  look  forward  in  order  to  ef- 
fectively plan;  and  we  look  forward 
because  we  aspire.  We  only  truly  look 
forward  when  we  both  plan  and  aspire. 

Looking  Forward  enables  us  to  shape 
o^r  course  and  perfect  our  plans  and 
our  methods.  We  can  give  them  neither 
completeness,  nor  effectiveness  other- 
wise. The  architect  who  constructs  a 
building  on  plans  that  have  been  care- 
fully laid  out  in  advance  knows  exactly 
what  is  to  be  done  at  every  point.  The 
difference  between  looking  ahead  and  an- 
ticipating and  knowing  the  future  of 
your  business,  and  not  doing  so,  is  the 
difference  between  building  a  house  with 
plans  and  building  one  without.  Con- 
ceive for  a  moment  an  intricate  struc- 
ture being  built  room  by  room  without 
any  design  or  intelligent  plan  beyond 

[143] 


LOOKING  FORWAKD 

the  laying  of  one  brick  upon  another,  the 
conception  extending  only  as  far  as  the 
day's  work,  and  you  have  exactly  the 
process  upon  which  many  business  peo- 
ple work.  It  is  not  surprising  that  some 
people  accomplish  much  more  than  oth- 
ers and  yet  work  no  harder.  They  go  far 
and  yet  have  fewer  abilities.  Their  ac- 
complishment is  more  complete,  yet  they 
have  labored  less  for  completeness. 

Ordered  results  do  not  come  by  chance, 
even  in  those  things  where  results  seem 
to  shape  themselves  in  the  rush  of 
chance,  as  winning  a  horse  race  or  a 
hotly  contested  football  game.  Aside 
from  practice  and  preparation,  and 
strength  and  endurance,  the  factor  of 
Looking  Forward  in  both  its  aspects  of 
aspiration  and  planning  is  the  deter- 
mining one.  I  once  knew  one  of  the 
greatest  American  trainers  and  drivers 
of  trotting  horses.  He  trained  and  drove 
a  number  of  the  most  famous  trotters 
of  the  American  turf.  His  victories 
took  place  amid  the  excitement  and 
shouting  of  thousands  of  spectators  un- 
der the  stress  of  the  tensest  interest  and 
excitement.  They  were  achieved  in  the 
character  of  the  man  and  in  the  looking 

[144] 


LOOKING  FOKWABD 

forward  of  his  planning  and  determina- 
tion. He  was  a  man  of  precision  and 
coolness,  strength  of  character,  and  per- 
sonal force.  His  habits  of  life  were  care- 
ful and  regular,  and  he  neither  tampered 
with  his  nerve  force  and  poise  by  the  use 
of  liquor  or  tobacco,  nor  by  speculating 
or  betting. 

"  When  you  are  starting,  you  doubtless 
make  a  great  effort  to  get  into  position," 
I  said  to  him  once. 

"Yes,  in  some  measure,"  he  replied, 
"but  generally  speaking,  I  try  to  get 
started  and  settled  down  to  work.  Then 
I  know  what  the  situation  is  all  around 
me.  I  take  everything  into  consideration 
carefully  and  I  work  steadily  for  a  given 
point.  There  must  be  no  indecision,  no 
nervousness,  no  lack  of  direction.  Some- 
times, there  is  a  fortunate  chance  comes 
which  is  not  calculated  out  before,  and 
which  I  take  advantage  of.  But  as  a 
rule,  my  course  is  well  laid  in  my  own 
mind  very  shortly  after  I  get  started  and 
I  follow  that  course." 

He  has  determined  to  win;  he  has 
looked  ahead  to  calculate  all  the  chances ; 
his  course  is  laid  out  and  he  follows  it. 
He  has  looked  ahead  but  he  constantly 

[145] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

looks  further  ahead,  so  that  he  is  ready 
to  take  advantage  of  any  fortunate 
chance  which  may  open. 

In  football  or  any  other  game  in 
which  the  element  of  chance  seems 
so  predominating,  common  experience 
proves  that  it  is  still  the  Looking  For- 
ward that  is  the  determining  factor. 
Aside  from  superiority  of  teams  or  con- 
testants— and  often  this  superiority  con- 
sists in  a  keener,  alerter,  more  sagacious 
looking  forward — it  is  the  power  of  plan- 
ning out  and  of  steadily  looking  forward, 
taking  advantage  of  the  uncalculated, 
that  counts. 

If,  then,  in  such  contests  as  these 
where  chance  and  fortune  are  such  fac- 
tors, looking  forward  is  of  so  much 
importance,  we  can  understand  how  im- 
portant it  must  be  in  the  more  serious 
game  of  life.  To  you,  the  success  of  your 
business,  of  your  affairs,  of  your  course 
in  life,  is  the  most  important  there  can 
be.  You  cannot  afford  to  build  it  with- 
out planning,  nor  without  regard  to  ulti- 
mate results.  You  do  not  want  in  the 
end  a  misshapen  building,  inadequate  for 
your  needs,  built  by  adding  to  a  little 
shack  a  room  on  here  and  another  on 

[146] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

there.  What  you  want  is  something 
planned,  consistent,  fit,  a  structure  on 
good  lines  of  evenly  distributed  strength, 
capable  of  accommodating  the  business 
without  friction,  without  unnecessary 
labor  and  without  any  weaknesses. 

Safety,  strength,  accomplishment, 
everything  desirable  and  satisfactory 
requires  that  in  shaping  your  course, 
you  look  forward,  you  plan,  you  take 
into  consideration  all  of  the  calculated 
factors  and  be  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  the  uncalculated  ones  which  may 
occur. 

Inseparable  from  Looking  Forward  is 
ambition.  It  is  a  part  of  Looking  For- 
ward. It  is  the  courage  to  believe  that 
you  are  capable  of  great  things  and  of 
developing  yourself  for  every  achieve- 
ment. 

It  is  the  courage  and  intelligence  to 
believe  enormous  responsibilities  are 
with  you,  to  believe  that  it  is  necessary 
for  you  to  achieve  some  of  the  world's 
great  purposes.  The  world  generally 
takes  a  man  at  his  own  estimate  of  him- 
self. You  may  place  the  estimate  of 
yourself  as  high  as  you  will,  and  if  you 
conscientiously  and  earnestly  act  on  it, 

[147] 


LOOKING  FOEWABD 

your  estimate  will  not  be  too  high.  You 
will  reach  that  mark  in  your  achieve- 
ments which  you  have  believed  yourself 
capable  of  reaching. 

Habits  are  strong  within  us.  After 
we  have  worked  hard  for  a  long  time  on 
one  line  the  disposition  to  sag  down  and 
wonder  whether  we  shall  reach  the  end 
we  aim  for  is  very  natural.  It  is  one  of 
the  old  habits  of  narrow  thought,  nar- 
row purpose,  narrow  conception  rising 
up  and  claiming  residence  with  us. 
Progress  and  activity  have  driven  it  off, 
but  until  new  and  firm  habits,  cemented 
by  achievement,  have  been  fixed,  we  al- 
ways have  that  old  attitude,  that  old 
hesitancy,  that  old  questioning  arising 
before  us.  Eemember  in  this  connection 
that  there  are  no  forces  which  can  pre- 
vent our  rise  except  those  that  are 
within  us.  Keep  in  mind  that  your  men- 
tal associates  may  be  what  you  will,  and 
that  people  who  are  out  of  sympathy 
with  you,  who  have  no  interest  in  you 
or  your  undertaking  detract  from  your 
force.  Those  who  are  in  sympathy  with 
you  add  to  it.  The  mother  knows  what 
it  means  for  her  boy  to  have  bad  asso- 
ciates. The  boy,  however,  may  not 

[148] 


LOOKING  FORWARD 

recognize  it.  It  is  so  with  our  mental 
associates.  Our  thoughts  and  those 
mental  forces  that  we  associate  with  may 
be  retarding  influences  or  stimulating 
ones  which  exercise  an  out-reaching, 
resolute  power  that  never  permits  us  to 
be  daunted,  that  resolutely  sets  us  in 
our  direction  and  keeps  us  steady  to  our 
purpose. 

If  you  look  resolutely  into  the  future, 
uninfluenced  by  the  failures  of  the  past, 
believing  that  you  can  accomplish,  res- 
solving  to  accomplish,  you  have  set  your 
course. 

Then  look  well  ahead,  think  well  of 
yourself,  believe  in  your  own  powers; 
remember  that  you  have  but  today's 
work  before  you.  Tomorrow  you  will 
have  added  strength.  If  you  have  the 
spirit  within  you,  the  grit,  the  resolu- 
tion and  the  determination  you  will  not 
fail  in  achieving  your  end.  Be  ambi- 
tious, determined  to  reach  a  height  as 
great  as  your  intelligence  can  conceive 
for  you.  You  will  find  all  along  your 
course  that  opportunities  and  plans  by 
which  you  may  achieve,  are  at  your  com- 
mand. You  will  not  find  yourself  ex- 
pecting them  in  vain.  At  every  turn 

[149] 


LOOKING  FOBWAKD 

you  will  be  anticipating  and  your  road 
will  be  pointed  out  to  you.  You  will 
know  it  and  you  will  find  within  yourself 
the  ability  to  accomplish  that  which  has 
been  called  for. 

Eemember  that  the  people  who  are 
achieving  greatness  all  around  you  are 
but  mortals.  They  are  accomplishing  by 
the  same  processes  that  you  must  adopt. 
This  exercising  of  mental  force  is  a  part 
of  your  work.  You  have  been  given 
your  brains,  your  conception  and  your 
intelligence  in  order  that  you  might 
recognize  your  possibilities,  and  that 
you  might  train  these  forces  and  direct 
them  to  a  construction  adequate  to  the 
purpose  for  which  you  aim.  No  force 
that  has  been  given  to  you  is  so  subtle, 
so  limitless,  and  so  tremendous  in  its 
power  as  this. 

Experience  will  constantly  teach  you 
that  the  first  and  continuous  effort 
should  be  to  look  ahead. 

Conceive  your  range  and  mentally 
occupy  that  position  from  the  start. 
Your  practical  achievement  of  it  is  but 
a  question  of  execution.  This  requires 
earnestness,  cool  judgment,  patience, 
persistence  and  all  other  governing 

[150] 


LOOKING  FOKWABD 

forces,  just  as  the  detail  of  a  big  busi- 
ness requires  constant  and  able  direc- 
tion. But  the  first  and  greatest  of  all 
is  the  conception.  It  is  the  purpose  per- 
formed in  the  mind,  the  position  you 
have  taken  for  yourself. 


[151] 


EFFECTIVENESS 


EFFECTIVENESS 

EFFECTIVENESS  comes  f  rom  within. 
It  is  the  determination  of  the 
individual  to  so  manage,  con- 
trol,   discipline    and   train   his 
own  powers  as  to  use  and  develop  them 
to  their  highest  possibilities.    Effective- 
ness differs  from  efficiency.     Efficiency 
comes   from  following   a   well   devised 
course  of  action.     Effectiveness  is  the 
moral  and  mental  force  that  brings  effi- 
ciency about.    It  is  an  impelling  force 
which  brings  results  by  creating  the  con- 
ditions that  produce  results. 

Effectiveness  is  progressive,  develop- 
ing, in  its  processes.  The  effective  man 
is  a  growing  man,  accomplishing  today 
what  he  could  not  have  accomplished 
yesterday  because  he  has  increased  his 
capacity,  enlarged  his  powers,  by  exer- 
cise and  effort.  It  is  lost  if  exercise  and 
effort  are  abandoned,  if  the  will  and  de- 
termination behind  it  are  lost. 

Effectiveness  is  a  matter  of  our  own 
will.  We  secure  it  because  we  want  it, 
and  go  about  getting  it.  Its  limit  de- 
pends upon  ourselves. 

[155] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

Effectiveness  is  a  habit  that  grows, 
but  it  is  also  a  habit  that  may  be  lost. 
As  it  grows  through  the  discipline  and 
training  of  our  mental  powers  and  our 
moral  force,  our  treatment  of  these  will 
affect  it.  Good  habits  of  mind  are  es- 
sential to  the  highest  effectiveness.  The 
mind  must  be  disciplined  not  only  to 
work,  but  to  rest,  and  to  do  either  at 
the  command  of  the  will.  Best  and 
change  are  just  as  essential  as  concen- 
tration. The  re-creation  of  forces  is  not 
less  important  than  their  exercise.  The 
important  and  useful  thing  is  that  the 
mind  should  be  so  disciplined  that 
whether  at  rest  or  at  work  it  is  at  the 
command  of  the  will. 

To  work  without  rest  is  like  constantly 
growing  the  same  crop  without  change 
on  the  same  soil;  fertility  is  exhausted. 
As  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is  maintained 
and  increased  by  the  appropriate  rota- 
tion of  crops,  by  rest  and  by  cultivation, 
so  the  fertility  of  the  mind  is  maintained 
and  increased  by  appropriate  rotation 
of  occupation,  by  rest  and  by  cultivation ; 
and  each  is  accomplished  by  systematic, 
not  by  haphazard  or  desultory  change. 
The  change  must  be  designed,  deter- 

[156] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

mined,  made  for  a  purpose,  done  at  the 
command  of  an  intelligent  will. 

Bad  habits  are  easily  acquired.  Lazy, 
listless,  vain  longings  destroy  the  power 
of  concentration,  and  activity  degener- 
ates into  sloth.  The  ability  to  co-ordinate 
and  to  direct  and  control  the  forces  of 
the  mind  mark  the  dividing  line  between 
high  effectiveness  and  mediocrity. 

Habits  of  half-training  are  pernicious ; 
habits  of  thoroughness  are  an  essential 
of  effectiveness.  It  is  better  to  do  one 
thing  well  than  twenty  poorly;  for  it  is 
only  through  habits  of  thoroughness  that 
the  mind  or  the  body  is  trained  to  meet 
the  tests  and  the  crises  of  life.  The 
army  or  the  navy  which  neglects  gun 
practice  in  time  of  peace  will  lack  effec- 
tiveness when  shots  count. 

Effectiveness  demands  a  mind  unin- 
cumbered  with  the  useless  and  confus- 
ing; a  mind  like  a  battleship  must  be 
stripped  for  action.  The  diletante  mind 
is  ineffective  because  incumbered  with  so 
much  that  is  unserviceable.  Action  is 
impeded,  directness  of  purpose  is  lost. 

Effectiveness,  though  unseen,  is  just 
as  absolute  as  though  it  were  a  physical 
force.  The  exercise  of  it  tempers  and 

[157] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

practices  and  strengthens  it.  It  grows 
like  a  rolling  snow-ball. 

Effective  men  seek  other  effective  men 
and  are  sought  by  them.  People  with  a 
common  interest  come  together.  Ele- 
ments combine  with  their  affinities,  not 
with  their  opposites.  And  the  forces  of 
thought  attract  to  them  other  like  forces 
which  increase  their  volume. 

Men  of  force,  push  and  determination 
are  attracted  to  each  other.  Every  con- 
tact of  such  men  with  others  like  them, 
every  conversation  among  them,  imparts 
a  vigor,  or  serves  as  an  inspiration  to 
each  and  strengthens  every  one.  Such 
men  do  not  associate  with  the  weak, 
vacillating,  uncertain  and  hesitating. 
These  group  themselves  together.  In 
human,  as  in  chemical  combinations,  it 
is  the  elements  having  affinity  for  each 
other  which  come  together,  creating  a 
new  substance,  a  new  organization. 

The  power  of  effectiveness  was  dis- 
played by  the  original  John  Jacob  Astor 
when  he  tramped  the  streets  of  New 
York  with  a  basket  of  apples  on  his  arm 
offering  to  one  after  another,  irrespec- 
tive of  the  number  of  discouragements 
and  refusals  to  purchase  that  he  met. 

[158] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

And  it  was  this  same  power  of  effective- 
ness developed  and  grown  greater  which 
made  him  one  of  the  master  spirits  of 
enterprise  of  his  day.  It  is  this  power 
of  effectiveness,  this  ability  to  concen- 
trate all  the  powers  on  the  purpose  in 
hand,  and  renew  itself  with  each  ob- 
stacle met  that  has  enabled  every  great 
projector  and  inventor,  from  Columbus 
or  Eobert  Fulton  down,  to  present  to 
one  person  after  another  with  earnest- 
ness, courage  and  faith,  the  importance 
and  value  of  their  project  or  invention, 
until  finally  they  have  engaged  the  at- 
tention and  secured  the  means  by  which 
they  have  triumphed. 

Effectiveness  should  be  a  growing 
power.  Each  accomplishment  develops 
strength  and  ability  for  larger  accom- 
plishment. That  is  why  the  effective 
man  regards  minor  achievements  with 
small  content,  looking  to  the  greater 
achievements  which  he  is  able  to  see  and 
believe  are  now  possible.  There  was  a 
time  when  small  achievements  were  just 
as  far  ahead  of  his  accomplishment  as 
the  larger  ones  are  now.  Strength  has 
grown  by  achievement. 

[159] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

The  elements  of  effectiveness  incite 
the  achieving  power,  the  mental  control ; 
and  with  determination,  mental  and 
moral  force  are  constantly  increasing 
themselves.  They  reach  out  for  their 
affinities  in  others.  It  is  not  an  unusual 
thing  to  be  hundreds  of  miles  away  from 
some  one  during  the  time  you  are  work- 
ing out  a  project,  or  a  plan,  or  an  inven- 
tion, and  then  suddenly  meet  that  one 
and  have  him  present  to  you  the  very 
plans  you  had  in  your  own  mind,  adding 
to  them  ideas  which  originated  with 
him.  He  has  unconsciously  acquired 
knowledge  of  your  plans,  doubtless  by 
this  working  out  of  mental  control,  and 
in  his  searchings  he  has  added  to  your 
plans  when  you  come  in  contact  with 
him.  The  very  concentration  of  two 
minds  on  the  same  subject  seems  to  have 
transmitted  thought  to  a  distance. 

Effectiveness  lifts  us  out  of  despond- 
ency, discouragement  and  difficulties.  It 
is  like  the  good  strong  team  of  horses 
which  comes  along,  hitches  on  to  the 
wagon  that  is  mired  and  pulls  it  out. 
The  effective  man,  the  effective  mind 
is  doing  this  constantly  for  the  weaker, 
the  uninitiated,  the  beginner,  or  those 

[160], 


EFFECTIVENESS 

of  limited  faith  and  force.  Effectiveness 
is  the  inspiration  to  renew  courage.  It 
begins  each  day  with  increased  resolu- 
tion, fresh  determination  and  with  re- 
juvenated vigor.  The  effective  man 
smiles  and  welcomes  the  difficulties  as 
they  surround  him.  In  effectiveness 
there  is  the  keen  vision,  the  alert  mind, 
the  intuitive  perception,  the  courageous 
soul,  the  resolute  will,  the  invincible  de- 
termination all  in  tune  and  all  in  har- 
mony because  attuned  by  habit  and 
practice,  and  by  the  complete  discipline 
of  the  will. 

In  effectiveness  there  is  that  rallying 
power  which  makes  you  quick  to 'see  a 
wrong  position  or  a  weakness,  and  gives 
you  the  power  to  correct  them ;  to  recog- 
nize impending  defeat  and  enable  you  to 
quickly  reorganize  your  plans  and  bring 
victory  out  of  it.  Effectiveness  is 
never  daunted,  because  it  is  the  ability 
to  utilize  every  resource  and  to  command 
every  reserve  power. 

Mere  industry  is  not  effectiveness. 
Effectiveness  can  be  neutralized  and  de- 
stroyed by  doing  the  things  of  lesser 
instead  of  those  of  greater  value.  There 
is  neither  gain  nor  effectiveness  in 

[161] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

counting  telegraph  poles  as  you  speed  by 
on  a  train,  or  in  adding  up  the  number 
of  seats  or  the  window  catches  that  a 
car  contains.  Effectiveness  confines  it- 
self to  those  things  of  distinct  value, 
occupying  itself  with  them  in  the  order 
of  their  importance. 

Effectiveness,  above  all,  avoids  occu- 
pying itself  with  destructive  things.  If 
you  spend  an  hour  in  despondency,  or 
fretting,  worrying  over  an  annoying  in- 
cident, or  centering  your  thoughts  on 
unpleasant  sights,  you  consume  force, — 
your  powers ;  and  you  attract  to  yourself 
those  negative  elements  which  make  the 
consumption  of  mental  force  double 
what  it  would  be  if  directed  in  a  use- 
ful and  purposeful  channel.  It  is  like 
the  destructive  waste  of  force  due  to  a 
hot  journal.  It  is  just  as  necessary  for 
you  to  spend  your  energy,  your  vital 
force  economically  as  that  you  spend 
your  money  economically.  It  is  essential 
that  you  get  full  value  for  what  you 
spend.  The  expenditure  of  thought  and 
force  do  not  stop  when  the  muscles  cease 
acting.  They  go  on.  They  are  always 
acting.  They  are  never  at  rest  when 
awake.  This  but  emphasizes  the  im- 

[162] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

portance,  therefore,  of  perfect  control 
and  discipline  of  these  powers. 

Effectiveness  gives  you  new  plans  by 
enabling  you  to  see  better  combinations 
of  the  old  plans.  It  makes  you  under- 
stand your  own  powers.  It  points  out 
the  way  for  success.  It  detects  weak- 
nesses, and  removes  them.  It  shapes  the 
expenditure  of  force  to  the  best  advant- 
age. Effectiveness  not  only  conceives 
new  ideas,  but  generates  and  marshals 
forces  which  will  carry  them  on  to  suc- 
cess. 

It  is  effectiveness  which  influences 
people,  which  inspires  their  confidence, 
which  attracts  them  to  you,  which  makes 
them  believe  in  what  you  say.  The  wiles 
and  influence  of  social  entertainments, 
the  lavishing  of  money,  flattery,  con- 
cessions or  other  appeals  to  foibles  or 
weaknesses  have  nothing  of  that  influ- 
ence which  the  quiet,  silent  force  of  ef- 
fectiveness has  in  attracting  people  to 
you,  and  inspiring  them  with  confidence 
in  you,  and  gaming  for  you  their  co- 
operation and  help.  The  things  which 
they  most  prize  in  themselves,  the  cer- 
tainties of  character,  the  power  of 
achievement,  the  factors  and  elements 

[163] 


EFFECTIVENESS 

of  success  which  they  desire,  they  find 
in  you;  and,  as  like  attracts  like,  they 
are  by  the  very  force  of  effectiveness 
brought  to  believe  in  the  possibility  of 
their  own  success.  It  is  in  this  way  that 
the  effective  man  duplicates  and  multi- 
plies himself  through  others. 

Effectiveness  does  not  fail  to  cultivate 
the  minor  forces  of  influence.  The  cul- 
tivation of  courtesy  and  suavity  of  man- 
ner, and  that  contact  with  people  which 
inspires  and  attracts.  Effectiveness 
recognizes,  as  some  one  has  put  it, 
"that  you  can't  make  faces  at  the  world 
and  succeed,"  no  matter  how  good  your 
business  may  be.  Effectiveness  includes 
tact,  the  power  and  the  skill  to  do  the 
right  thing  at  the  right  time. 

Effectiveness,  the  power  to  accom- 
plish, set  in  motion  by  the  desire  to 
accomplish,  is  what  has  made  the  prog- 
ress of  the  world,  developed  all  the 
great  inventions,  increased  the  beauty 
and  pleasure  of  living,  bettered  civili- 
zation and  developed  men. 

Effectiveness  is  yours  if  you  will  have 
it  and  are  willing  to  pay  the  price  for 
it ;  and  there  is  no  limit  to  your  effective- 
ness except  that  which  you,  yourself  set. 

[164] 


HERE  ENDS  THE  POWER  or  MENTAL  DEMAND 
AND  OTHER  ESSAYS  AS  WRITTEN  BY  HERBERT 
EDWARD  LAW,  F.  C.  S. ,  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  PAUL 
ELDER  AND  COMPANY  AT  THEIR  TOMOYE  PRESS 
IN  THE  CITY  OP  SAN  FRANCISCO,  UNDER  THE 
PERSONAL  SUPERVISION  OF  JOHN  BERNHARDT 
SWART,  IN  THE  MONTH  OF  DECEMBER  AND  THE 
YEAR  NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTEEN 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


